Date: 2007-07-31
To: Horns Pond Lean-To
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: light rain

mi. 10dest. Horns Pond Lrean-tossleep hammockday 19Well It didn't rain. The tarp was nice to tarp in some heat though. I awokeand did my normal routine and packed up. I hit up the privy on the way out. Some of these really crack me up. This one was fulling enclosed and a 2 seater. I close 2 seater, and had curtins. Yeah I took a pick. At the next one I amgoing to make to take the one I have been wanting to on these. I'll keepeveryone in suspense and tell you when I do it.Today was some tuff hiking. First was up little bigelow. Not a bad climb. Butonce again 4 times the false summits as the map shows. One fooled me enoughthat I stopped and had coffee. Dog father last night saod something that I kindof agree with on false summits. They are kind of nice in that with each one theclimbs get a little less and easier. But I still would rather just have asingle up and be there. I just need to realize all mountains have these andmove on. I'm sure I will before I get out of maine.At the bottom of the decent was a campsite and water just a little bit off thetrail. I decided to carry 2 liters for the first time to stay hydrated. I satat the water source and finished my water and loaded up on 2 liters. One thingI noticed was that the last little bit of my water for awhile for tasting prettybad. The only thing I could think of is that I was not giving my aquia miratime to mix. It is a 2 part bleech solution that needs to mix for 5 minutedbefore you add it. It tasted really chemically, so it made sense. This time Itook my time and eat my second king sized snickers of the day. Ahh 1000calories from 2 candy bars.At where this trail met the AT I tan in to Pinky and Sundance. I run intoSundances other half Butch Casity a few days before. I relayed the message hegave to pass on. They both were not real talkitive, read not at all. So Imoved on. They have a TJ that may explain the whole back story there.The climb to the first of 2 peaks on Bigelow was pretty tough. Gains somethinglike 2000 feet in 2 miles. Towards the end I kept leap frogging with a campgroup.The top was great. Also the first alpine above tree line mountain for me sinceKatadin. Great views all around.I sat down next to a worn down old fire watch shack (not a tower at all, just alittle shack} right next to a goup of 8 college age kids. I was talking withthem. They are on a freshman orientation hike for 4 days over the mountain fromUnity College. They apparently have a really active outdoors program. Waycooler stuff than I ever did.Best thing of all they were carrying tons of food and willing to share. Ienjoyed a pita bread shell with lots of fresh cut cheeze, pepperoni, andpowdered garlic. That tasted great. And to top it all off they asked me if Iwanted any more food. Well of course I said yes. They gave me a couple snackbars and some Snickers.They where not hiking very far each day and going to do a little service projectat the lean to I am staying at tomorrow. They said I was more then welcome tocamp with them tonight at a campsite in between the 2 peaks and do some yogawith them. In retrospect I should have done this. I probibly would have beenfeed good and have a good story to tell. This is also one of the highestcampsites on the AT at 4000 feet. But that would have ment an 8 mile day intotown tomorrow instead of an easy 5 miles. So I moved on. Thanks again guys forthe bomber food and bomber trail magic.That is something that I play around with. Everyone calls anything given to youtrail magic. Basically something good that comes your way on the trail. Ithink getting feed via the cooler was great. But I think the term magic ismisleading. Magic should be special things that are unplanned and you just luckinto. The cheeze and conversation yesterday at a pond or the random collegegoup feeding me. I think the planned things should be called something else soyou can diferenate between the 2. I like the term trail charity for the plannedthings. It fits I think. It is someone planning ahead of time and givingsomething to someone else. So from now on that is how I will write about thetwo. This ends my rant.The hike down to the shelter was good. Some of the springs here are set updifferent. They are basically a wooden box along the trail and has a pool ofwater in them. Good thing someone told me or I might have walked by them.Also I saw a great thing that I only saw one other time so far at a rando springnot attached to any shelter. I sign only facing southbound with no northboundcounterpart. Got to love it. Southbound pride.This shelter is a little different than most. It is MATC {maine AT club}maintained. Luckily unlike the AMC or commonly reffered to as the applicahianmoney club, they don't charge a fee. That's another rant for another time.This site does have a couple tent sites and 2 shelters. More importantly it wasa pond that is great for swimming. And yes it was great.I had a really good talk with a couple staying here by the names of evergreenand chickadee, and the caretaker. The couple are both school teachers at asmall college in Vermont and do a lot of long distance trips. Today was thelast opf a 21 day hiking trip for them. The caretaker is back for the summerafter living in London. All of them had really interesting views. I think Italked with them for a couple hours.I think I finally decided on a trail name. Basically everyone goes by anickname or trail name. Can't say how it started but everyone does it. Bluebird named me this and I have been writing it in registries so I guess it'soffical. Any guesses? Yep coffee. Pretty fitting actually.Health wise I am feelig great. I only used 1 ankle wrap today and a littleyesterday instead of 2 and everything is feeling great. I think I am going towrap it for a few more days then go without. The second wrap was changing thearch in my foot too much and starting to hurt my heel. My back is also feelingbetter than ever. Most be all these nights in the hammock.Trail lingo note:Eric commented in the guest book that he couldn't understand some of the lingo. I am trying to put in the defition when I can. Let me know if I need to addmore. Registried btw are just notebooks in every shelter {same thing aslean-to} that people write notes or whatever to each other in.Geat note:I think I am sending the gaiters home. I have been hiking the last couple dayswithout them and liking it. I may pick them back up when I get into the badtick states or cold weather.