Date: 2007-08-03
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Popular Ridge Lean-To
Miles today: 14.0

mi. 14sleep. hammockdest. Popular Ridge Lean-today 22Finn, Xtreme, and Brooke were playing hide and {sandwich}. Xtreme, who has more{ramin} than he can handle, hid in the {hot cocoo}. Finn and Brooke looked forhim under the {gaitar} and in the {tarter sauce}. "{Bananaed}!" They heardXtreme yell. "This is so {crunchy}! Finn and Brooke {cheezed} to find Xtremeonly to find him {sausaged} with a {beer}. "Xtreme you sure are {noodily}"laughed Finn and Brooke.The above has to be the best madd lib ever. It was on the back of my gold fishXtreme bold flavor. Tasted great and great entertainment. That is as itappears in the registry at this shelter.Today was not too bad. I got hiking by 7am. I wanted to get an early startsince the weather forcast was for afternoon thunderstorms.I stopped at the stream at the bottom of sugarloof. The waterfall and swimminghole everyone at the shelter told me about was a 1 foot falls in a stream withonly bath tub sized pools. Had to pass on that. I will say I was a littledisappointed.The hike up sugarloof was not bad at all. I really need to stop believing theprofile maps. They have a vertical scale of 7.26 to 1. Meaning the heightappears 7.26 times higher to match up with the distance. Not exactly close.I could have made it up easily yesterday. I got to the trail leading to the skiresort after about 1.5 hrs of hiking. Clay, Clint, and Jason stayed there andsaid it was great.I got to the next shelter around 11am and stopped in for a short lunch break. As I was finishing my coffee, those 3 rolled in. We had the same goal for theday. I told them about the storms and talked a little, then headed out. The hiking on the south side and down the mountain wasn't bad at all. I made itmost of the way down before I started to hear thunder. No lightning and norain, plus I was in tree cover well off the ridge, so I pressed on.Once it started raining I stopped to put the camera in the pack. I sit therefor a second debating about the rain coat, when it really started to rain. Iwas a pretty sheltered under a tree. So I put the shirt on and rain jacket on. I had been hiking shirtless up to this point. After a minute or so I put the hood up. Then someone yelled at me from behind. Scared the crap out of me. It was Jason trucking along. He had to have beenover 3 mph. A little fast for my taste. I then realized I was getting soakedin sweat and the rain was letting up, so back to shirtless.Between that and the next mountain was a little stream with a small falls. Notideal, but I still went for a little swim. Clay caught up with me at the pointand joined me. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed some tasty goldfish andClint rolled in. His knees where really bothering him. I gave him my extrabandage wrap. Hopefully it helps.We started to hear thunder again and decided its best to get started up poplarand hike the 2 miles to the shelter.I got most of the way up when it started to thunder, lightning, and rain. Thunder sounds really weird when you are close to it. By that time I was justgetting to the rock part.Lets just say I got a hiker shower to go with my hiker bath. I finally rolledin to a full shelter. Everryone was happy to see I was hammocking. Luckily itstopped raining long enough for me to setup.Planning to get up early and head into Rangley tomorrow. I need just a littlemore food to make it top andover. I am going to repackage things this time. Mycookies opened up and are all over my foodbag. That and the extra 6 or so oz Iam carrying.Today I also went through the 200 mile mark. I'm pretty happy about that. Eventhough I did not realize it until afterward. If you cn't tell I'm not makingtoo big of a deal about it. I think each state to me is going to be the bigdeal.Also my hammock spot is another one you would not want a tent. There is apuddle of water underneath me. I think I am going to stop hanging like that. It is more of a pain than anything. It's harder to get in and out withoutgetting wet. At leat this time the only thing in the botom of my netting is myshoes. Although my clothes will still be wet tomorrow. But polypro shirts andmail drop in andover is only a few days away. I am thinking Monday.Sorry for the breif entry. I want to go back and write the aug 1st one I lostbefore I head into town tomorrow.Budget note:Well after going over the budget after I woke up and can't sleep, I need to makeit no coffee after 5pm, I was actually $50 over last week. This only because Idecided to make my budget weeks line up with my trail weeks. Starting on Fridayand ending on Thrusday. I think that will be easier on need keeping track. Before I was doing Sunday to Saturday. But as I trip I am still $60 underbudget. I also have 2 meals and some snacks in the food bag. Still I'm feelinga flyby and not staying in the next town. Weather note:It is 10:50pm and my campsite is at 3000 ft of elevation and there is a hugethunderstorm going off. It sounds crazy loud. The storm is basically overtopme. The last thunder made me jump. Pretty cool and a little scary. If it isstill going on in the morning I am not going anywhere. No way I am hiking overa ridge in this weather. My site is pretty sheltered though. Good thing.