Date: 2005-03-17
From: Standing Bear Farm Hostel

To: Groundhog Creek Shelter
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: light snow

I woke up at 5:30. Gel gave Whazoo and I some oatmeal for breakfast and also cooked up some breakfast burritos that he shared with us. At about 7:30 Curtis drove some of us to a truck stop and we picked up some breakfast biscuits. It was snowing so Whazoo, Gel, and I weren't sure if we wanted to hike, but we decided just to go to the first shelter, 7 miles. It was uphill until we got to the top of Snowbird mountain and downhill after that. At about 12:15 the three of us made it to the shelter and decided to stay. After we ate lunch and sat around a while we decided to get a fire going. Unfortunately, since it was snowing, everything was wet. Except for A pile of logs in the shelter. Our first fire attempt proved unsuccessful, but our second attempt, this time with large quantities of alcohol, yielded fire. Unfortunately, we only had kindling and logs. Nothing in between. So Whazoo began work on splitting a log. First he found a rock that he used as a wedge, then he searched for something to hammer it with. He finally discovered he could use a log to hammer. So he did. It looked like that scence at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. He squatted over the log and raised another one over his head. Then he bashed it down as hard as he could and jumped back at the same time. After several bashes it worked, and our fire flourished. At about 3:00 I made another water run. When I got back Cat had arrived. We hadn't seen him since Franklin. A few minutes later Bailey arrived. After they ate Gel decided to go to bed, at 4:00. The rest of us stood around the fire and talked. Then I got the brilliant idea to dry my socks with the fire. After the others saw this they also grabbed their socks. So the four of us were standing around dangling socks over this roaring fire. After a while, Bailey decided she would speed it up by dangling 2 socks in each hand. This went well until she got distracted by the conversation and, in one heart stopping instant, one of her socks plunged straight into the heart of the fire. Chaos erupted. Whazoo ran for a hiking stick and flung it out of the fire. Bailey stood over her sock and kept saying it was all right. Miraculously, after the smoke cleared, we discovered it was. So the sock-drying continued. We started comparing it to roasting marshmallows. This got Cat thinking and he suddenly left the fire. A few minutes later he returned with a Y shaped stick. He put the socks on the stick and let the roasting begin. It was soon discovered that stick roasting is riskier and Cat abandoned it. But Bailey thought it was a good idea and took the stick from him. She put her socks on it and let them dangle close to the fire. Thirty minutes went by. Everyone expected another sock to fall in, but it never happened. When Bailey decided the socks were done, she took them out of the fire and examined them. To her surprise, they were charred and blackened. After much debate over whether or not they were still wearable, she decided to part with them. After a short ceremony the socks were deposited in the fire and began to be cremated. Shortly afterward a horrific stench engulfed the area until the socks were completely gone. That night as we were lying in our sleeping bags, Whazoo said tat one of his socks felt strange. He took it off and examined it and discovered a hole in the big toe with char marks around the edges.