Date: 2007-09-18
From: Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to

To: The Hemlocks Lean-To
Miles today: 19.7

mi. 19.7sleep shelterdest. The Hemlocks Lean-to day 68 Finally geting caught up again. It is really easy to get behind. Especially if there is something going on at night. I really feel that when I am journaling I am missing out on something happening in the moment. That is why I try to journal at night before bed. But if I have someone to talk too or I'm tired, it gets pushed back. Same goes for taking pictures. I feel like I can live in the moment or document it. I enjoy taking pictures and will enjoy looking at them later. But I feel like I have to remove myself from what is going on and take the picture. Or if I'm around other people I feel like I change the moment when I take the picture. I really don't have a point to make. Just an observation on something. I am glad I am doing a journal and tking a lot of pics on my hike. But I think i will do them a little different next time. Anyways. I want to try to stay in shelters until I get my cold weather hammock gear. I am tired of being cold at night. I don't have enough to stop the convection cooling at night. 2 more nights to go. At least these are the nice big shelters with racks (bunks) to sleep on. You could probibly squeeze 20+ people on the 4 racks, floor, and loft on a rainy day. There is always room for one more when its raining. I got the usual 8-ish start today after filling up with water. It's getting harder to find in places. I hiked on from camp for about a mile and came across one of the register boxes on a tree. Sometimes they put them in the middle of nowhere. I opened it up, no register. What I found was way better. I found part of a newspaper. Not just any part, but the best and my favorite part. The funnies. I decided what better place to take a coffee break. So I sat on this little foot bridge and made coffee. It felt great to sit there and read the funnies and drink coffee. I really enjoy the little things now. The paper wasn't even that old. Usually you find a 2 week or older one. This one is from Friday. And get this, no one did the Sudoku yet. That alone is next to unheard of. So I tore it out and put the paper back when I was finished readig. That is going to be my entertainment for tonight. It is a level 4 and I am not that good anymore so it should take up a lot!of time. I was hiking along when I saw a sign that said there was a bridge out and to take the blue blaze. I figured that it was talking about the river I had to cross in a couple miles. Then I remembered there was a road before that. I jumped over this 1.5 foot or so gap to find another sign. It was for that. I could see the blue blazegoing 20 feet around it. It was not wide, 20 feet deep or so. But come on, the trail does way sketchier things than this. People wrote comments on the sign like this must be a joke, or jump it. The hike today was really chill. My gool starting out was to make it 12 miles in to a little store. I didnkt know what they had, just they had something to eat. I made it there by 2pm. It turned out to be a fruit stand/green house. I ended up with some fruit, apple cider, and some brichsire ice cream. They had the good unpasterized cider. Not the crap you get in the store. I have been craving it for awhile after seeing it in the grocery store. I just wanted the good stuff. So I eat up and decided to make the trek up to the next shelter. Originally I thought it was too far, but I only had to go about 8 miles and I had over 4 hours of light to do it. The next 5 miles were like the last 2. Flat by AT standards. I think I only changed 100 feet in elevtion the whole time. It was also a lot of field walks. I saw the another prefect one with a large tree in the middle today. Another one of those you picture when you think about sitting under a tree in the shade and reading or having a picnic. I snapped a few pics and went along my way. Today I also pasted the monument for Shay's rebillion. It is right on the trail along a road in the middle of nowhere. It was the revolt again government taxes and tactics in 1787. The trail is going to start passing though some historic places. Now the only climb today was up jug end mountain. Only a 900 foot climb. It had great switch backs. A couple days ago I was doing some where I swear I walked 100 yards one way, then 100 yards back and ended up 50 feet from where I started. A complete waste. These were very well done. I flew up the mountain. I was completly fooled by one of the Maine Teases (false summits). I stopped and drink some cider and planned out my next few days. I got going and found I still had a few ups left to go. I few minutes later I pasted a couple of weekenders that I would later share the shelter with. I finally got to the shelter around 6:30. I crazy long day for me. Almost another 20 miler. To me it is. For the second night in a row I got a fire going. I literally only spent 2 minutes gathering kindling. There was already a large pile gathered. Even some birch bark. So I got a fire going and them made some dinner. As I was finishing up the 2 weekenders polled up. They looked like they had a rough go at it. I gave them some of my water so they could start dinner while she went for more water. He ended up having some issues with his Colman stove, so I left them use my jetboil. They are eating the mountain house meals where all you need to do is add boiling water to the pouch, so it wasn't a big deal. In talking with them she has followed my journal a couple times. I thought that was cool. The very first person I met that has. Hello Tony and Jim. I ended up talking with her for awhile while journaling. She has trouble sleeping out here. Jim is already sleeping. He snores bad sometimes. It sounds funny. Just like Fred Flintstone at times. That alone has a big entertainment value to it. I'm finally finishing up around 10pm. Having justed watered the leaves and stoked the fire. Now off to bed after a little sudoku.