Date: 2007-03-13
From: Long Creek Falls

To: Justus Creek
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night when I went to bed the temp was 56. I finally fell asleep around 9:15only to wake an hour later slightly chilled and needing to go water the leaves.So I got up and the temp had now dropped into the upper 40's...hence my chillsdue to no sleeping pad in my hammock.   Oh it is a little creepy peeing in thewoods late at night...I kept shining my light around to see if a bear or bigfootwas watching! ha haI ate half a snickers, and added my sleeping pad and it was instantly warm. Iwoke again around 2:00 a.m. after having this crazy dream about 2 people tryingto steal my hammock....it was now 41 but I was still warm. When I woke for goodat 6:45 .a.m. it was 38, and I was pretty stoked that I was warm all night. Iused my friend Hammock Engineer's idea and used my Micropuff vest to wrap aroundmy neck and even put over my head some. That with the following clothes kept metoasty:Skull cap, midweight thermals, long sleeve shirt, my new Montbell down jacket,fleece pants, smartwool socks. I am really happy with this down jacket.Oh I lost my tooth paste somewhere, but Nicole is letting me borrow hers...inreturn she is using my duct tape because hers is in a bounce box. We aremesses.So about today's hike, it was exhausting. It kicked my ass' ass. We got startedat 9:45 a.m. and did not finish till 7:00 p.m. The problem is that there was nowater source between Hawk Mt. Shelter and Justis Creek. Anyone getting ready tohike this section....BEWARE....everybody is running out of water here...load upat Hawk Mt. Shelter!!!This basically meant we needed to get to Justis Creek since Hawk Mt. Shelter wasonly 2.5 miles away and we only have so much food so we can't drag this out for10 days just to go 30 miles...LOL.We did that first 2.5 miles and ate lunch at the shelter with Grammy Hero,Seattle Sailor, Hangman, Billy the Kid. We left at 1:00 p.m. with full watersthat we knew we had to ration....we had Sassfrass Mt. ahead of us...a.k.a.Sassafrass Kick Your Ass, as the locals call it.First we had 3 climbs to make and we took the bottoms off our cargo pants forthe first time today. The 1.9 miles from High Tower Gap to Horse Gap werebrutal...but more of that was to come.Nicole and I have decided that ups are easier on your feet but harder on yourquads and I discovered that using hiking poles on ups is a great tricep workout,flat just kills your feet, and downs are the worst and they kill your feet andjoints. My left knee is a little sore from today. We met Blue Meanie and Hiker Chic who are also camping here tonight. Theycracked me up because they have business cards with their trail names andcontact info on it that they hand out to everyone. Smart people. We hiked the 2.4 miles to Horse Gap by 3:20 and took a long break with Hangman,who is called that because he does human suspension. Sassafrass was next...itlooked daunting. It was 4 more miles to Justis Creek so we set off at 4:00 p.m. It took us 49 minutes to climb 1 mile practically straight up. We were havingto stop and catch our breath every 20 feet and laughed about it every time.   Wewere still loving it though. We came up with a system....Nicole leads on ups andI lead going down. The views were stunning, and we rewarded ourselves on breaksby looking back at the distance we had covered. It's really weird seeing theoutline of a 3,300 ft mountain, and knowing you will eventually be at the top ofit.   Next we had Justis Mt. which was shorter...but even MORE straight up. We weredying and were trying to cut a deal with the gods...that if they would magicallyplace a creek at the bottom of Sassafrass...we'd stop cussing. No creek yet. Then it was down and back up Phylis Spur, which was shorter but ended with a 1mile down to Justis Creek where there is WATER and a great campground! I haveNEVER been so happy to see the end goal. I had to bribe my feet to keep goingby promising them I'd soak them in the creek....it was the first thing we didwhen we got here. The water is so cold it instantly numbs any pain..and believeme....they were in pain and were saying mean things to me again.   I made camp and even rinsed my under garments out in the creek. I alreadystink, and it's only day 2!! Then I made/ate dinner in the dark. I had Idahoan"loaded" mashed potatos tonight. I thought I added too much water again...butit made for some nice smooth "creamy" potatos.   Way beat last night's dinner.Everyone here agreed today was insane and none of us are getting up early. It'sabout 11:00 p.m. and I can't keep my eyes open. Temp is 55 right now and again,I am listening to the creek rush by about 15 ft. away. This campground is ahammock hanger's dream! Lot's of great trees.   Oh we got to enjoy a fire fight between the Army Rangers tonight. They trainhere and we saw them doing squad patrols, but once it got dark...one of themappeared and warned us it was going to get loud. We were all excited to hearit. I thought it would be closer, but it was still pretty cool. I also wavedto one in a helicoper today...he even waved back!Nighty night.....~Michele