Date: 2010-08-12
From: Hexacuba Shelter

To: Jeffers Brook Shelter
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: overcast clouds

12 August Thursday ¢ 15.7 miles to Jeffers Brook ShelterMy biohazard waste plastic bag pack liner is back and waking hikers up with all my rustling. New and crispy plastic keeping the contents of my heavy pack dry. When I wake up at dawn I try to be considerate enough to pack up away from the shelters. I¢ve also noticed my groups increased urge to camp in shelters again. It¢s not as hot at night so we don¢t mind the collective body heat under the roof. Packed up and ate my granola while everyone seemed to be asleep but me. Before leaving I took a dump in the pentagram shaped privy!The clouds in the valley below Hexacube Mtn. summit had trailing tails like jet exhaust. The white puffy clouds looked like cannon smoke. The air is cool and I feel the need to wear more clothing. I rustle through my bright red bag to find my jacket for the downhill walk into Glencliff, NH. I pass an older German man and a younger American woman who knows Jibbitz. I laughed at the disparage of popularity of trail journal hits to Jibbitz online journal. They tell me she¢s up to at least 200,000. The German man claimed to have thru-hiked in the past. He said that staying in towns and using cell-phones wasn¢t thru-hiking. I respectfully disagree. Walking 2000 miles is good enough for me to be a thru-hiker.I caught Rock¢n¢Roll and Cowgirl by the time they¢d gotten to Ore Hill Shelter where they were getting water. They¢re trying to go to Warren for their resupply. Cowgirl thinks it¢s going to rain but I¢m feeling lucky today. We switched leading a few times until I became lost when the trail crossed NH25C Rd. I couldn¢t figure out where the trailhead was located. There was a giant cut-thru for enormous power lines. The gate leading into the power line road has a white blaze on either side of the BACK of the posts guarding the area from vehicle traffic. I go over the gate and walked in the wrong direction. I walked a long distance down the utilities access road beneath buzzing wires and thinking the whole time that I was completely wrong. There were no foot prints or paths around this place. I wasted 30 minutes when it was right down the highway on the left the whole time. The blazes were obscured a little but it was my negligence that caused it all. It always seems like someone is nearby when I cuss aloud about something that aggravates me. Never fails! Someone was nearby. Cowgirl and Rock¢n¢Roll could hear me through the woods across from the power lines.I hit the gas and pass by Rock¢n¢Roll and Cowgirl. I¢m thinking of getting to Warren for trail magic to celebrate the 400 miles remaining location we¢ll pass today! It¢s tradition! I did the 400 mile trail magic at Kincora and now I want to do it here in NH! I wasn¢t paying attention to where I was this morning and hit my head on an overhanging tree limb today. It hurt like an S.O.B. and I wanted to cry but I kept my composure. Shortly thereafter I punted a huge root with the unprotected top of my foot. I wasn¢t sure whether it was broken or not for a little while. When I arrived at NH25¢s second trail crossing there was a large group of young kids in hiking apparel. The kids are doing a 17 mile ¢Death March¢ over Moosiluske and beyond! The ¢Death Marchers¢ are being supported along the way with Gatorade and sandwiches at road crossings! The support staff offered me some of the supplies and I couldn¢t refuse. They helped me figure out which way Glencliff¢s post office was while I made a wheat bread, cheese, humus, and pepperoni sandwich from the back of their minivan. The girl from NC and I talked as I refilled my water bottle 4 times with the kids Gatorade!The walk to the hostel was pretty easy. No need to hitch to it. The post office doesn¢t open until 2pm and its 12:30 right now! Great, I can kill time trying to get into Warren for celebratory beers for a few of my favorite hikers. Tour Guide is there at the hostel eating take-out food. I¢m not sure if I mentioned this or not but Tour Guide is Brian from Tray Mountain shelter. The guy with the slow walking pace that worked as a cardio nurse in Alabama! He¢s lost a considerable amount of weight along the way. We lost him after the Long Trail Inn when we decided to take a zero day after he¢d already left.I felt silly standing by the road without any traffic trying to hitchhike to Warren. Luckily, I didn¢t wait long before a kid in a bright shiny new yellow car picked me up. He must have been 19. He was listening to the new Eminem CD he¢d purchased. He turned it down when I first got in but I requested he turn it up when the conversation turned dry. He has one of those ¢systems¢ in his car that makes the bass reverberate in your chest. The volume caught me by surprise and all I wanted was for it to stop. The rear view mirror was awash with vibration. This dirty smelly hiker couldn¢t help but laugh at the teeth rattling noise he¢d gotten himself into. The kid mentioned that I needed to hear one song before another so ¢it¢d make sense¢ to me. I couldn¢t make out much else besides the lyrics, ¢bitches, benzes and¢¦¢ something that started with another ¢B¢.I bought a bunch of Steel Reserves but left the store without hot dogs. I hadn¢t been thumbing out in front of the gas station long before I saw a familiar silver Toyota truck whip around and come by me in the opposite direction it was going. It¢s the German guy and woman! They were so excited to see me that they were trying to talk to me through the rear view window of the truck cab. I¢m sitting in the back under the camper shell in the bed and all I can hear is the whooshing sound of the wind and the whining tires. I nod my head like I understand them and respond with a yell every now and then. The lady turns around to talk to me and runs off the road when she stops paying attention. Between one chaotic second to the next I decipher that they left trail magic at the next shelter up from NH25 for us! Chips and beer await our arrival tonight! The German and lady drop me off right by the post office and hostel and then return to Warren. They went out of their way to help me and it made me whole day! It¢s going to be a great afternoon!Hung out at the hostel and called Lish. She¢s still doing fine. Recovering well! Mala was there again slackpacking Krispy Kritter. We are all hiking 1 mile to the next shelter. It¢s actually the first shelter in the WHITE MOUNTAINS! Oh what a celebration! We drink the Steel¢s and head out thinking we might have to ford our first river! It turned out to be really low and nothing to concern ourselves about.There are about 20 people at the shelter tonight. One of the SOBO¢s comment that we¢re the first group of NOBO¢s that seem to be having a lot of fun being here. We are!The old German man wrote a hilariously awkward and inappropriate entry into the shelter register:¢If I were 60 years younger, Compost (he meant Kumquat) and Yahtzee¢¦I¢d hike to the ends of the earth with you¢ ¢ signed Old German GuyWe went to bed with a bag of chips on a nail inside the shelter. It wasn¢t long at all before we¢d caught a hungry mouse in the Lay¢s bag!