Date: 2005-06-09
From: Trail Angel's home

To: Kent, CT
Miles today: 63.5

hey all.. the going has been very slow for a couple of days because it has been very very hot and the water sources have all been dry.. I'm now carrying an extra liter of water until these springs get flowing again.. the weight sucks.. but it disappears fast. Speaking of weight.. I got my pack weight down some more.. I'm hovering right around 15 pounds (that's fully loaded.. in other words with 4 days of food and with full water).. it's great.. I know. To do this I cut down on everything.. including getting rid of toilet paper. I now use leaves.. there are many.. and I don't have to carry them. I simply collect them for a couple minutes as I walk down the trail. When I have enough I step off and do my thing.. yea.. pretty bad ass. Just have to watch those ones with 3 leaves. I also finally parted with my "winter" gear.. and by this I mean a fleece pull over.. fleece gloves and my polartec fleece tights. I also parted with my "therm-a-rest" because it had a hole in it so when I would wake up in the morning it was flat.. I figured what's the sense in carrying the extra 20 ounces (that's a lot, mind you) if I'm able to sleep on it flat anyway. Guess what.. I sort of figured wrong.. see the thing was.. it stayed inflated long enough that I had time to fall asleep.. once that was done who cares if it's flat.. i'm not waking up until I hear the birds chirping. So, the first couple of nights without my beloved thermarest were pretty tough. I basically didn't sleep at all. However.. as if living by Specialized Mtn. Bikes motto, "innovate or die" I soon figured out a solution.. a brilliant uberlight solution. I realized that I could use my tyvek groundsheet.. fold it up.. to about 18" x 36" and stuff it with my rain jacket, long sleeve shirt, and my tarp and wa-laa I had a sleeping pad. See.. the beauty in this is that I never used my tyvek groundsheet in shelters.. so it just sat in my pack.. the only time I use it is when I tarp.. in which case it's on grass or at least on leaves which means I don't need a sleeping pad. Beautiful.. I know. Don't worry... my book discussing uberlight backpacking is on the way. Recently.. the bugs have come out.. and by recent I mean about 3 days ago when it decided to be 90 degrees and also when all the water sources decided to become mud puddles. By bugs coming out I don't mean I have an occasional fly circling my head.. oh no. There are always at least 5.. maybe 6.. I get too dizzy before I can count them all so it's a rough estimation. Along with the flys are mosquitos clinging to my skin.. They suck.. alot. To deal with the bugs while I hike I've now perfected the art of killing them by catching them and grinding them to death with the two tips of my poles..like chop sticks.. I know.. I'm a bad ass. Do I kill them all by nightfall? No.. hell no. There are millions of the bastards. So, how do I sleep? Well, I crawl into my wonderful 3lb one man tent and laugh as they try to get in. Err.. not. I wish this was the case. But, there's no way I'm carrying a 3lb tent.. ever. It goes against everything uberlight. Do I just lay there.. getting eaten to death? No. I cinch myself so tight into my sleeping bag that there is no way they could ever get in. Wrong. Tried this. They get in.. all of them get in.. and they all fly right next to my ear.. taunting me and biting me. It's not fun. So.. Do I just enter a state of meditation where it doesn't matter how many times they bite me.. where I am at peace and the bugs are fellow spritual creatures? No.. no freakin' way.. Here's what I do.. and don't tell.. because it's my secret. It's common knowledge that most thru-hikers carry at least 2 pairs of socks. But, am I most thru-hikers? No.. I'm not happy with being ultra light.. i'm uber light. So, I carry one pair of socks. What does this mean as far as bugs go? Well.. my socks get very very very smelly .. in other words they stink.. You know when you're driving in your car (your nice air conditioned car where you don't have to exert any energy and you get to where you're going about 15 times faster than I) and you smell a skunk.. it stinks right? You think, "oh man.. that's a damned skunk again.. when are those things going to become extinct?" 5 seconds later you're so far down the road you no longer smell it. Well imagine that skunk smell.. but that same skunk smell in a locker room .. a hot and stuffy locker room.. with fungus growing in the showers.. If you get the picture.. you get my socks.. my one pair of hideously stinky socks. Again.. what does this have to do with bugs? Alot. A whole lot. My one pair of socks smells so bad that all the insects around come flying to them and stick to them.. they won't move even if you swat at them.. it's like heaven for them. I simply use my socks as bug repellent. However occassionally one or two bugs will find their way past the socks and into the shelter. Though, like all things.. there is an uberlight solution. I've learned to put my stinky smelly socks hanging on the opposite side of the shelter.. right next to the gear head.. two days totally planned out from dusk to dawn section hiker. That's right. I just hang my nasty ole socks right over that poor bastards feet and laugh as he rolls in his bag swatting at all the insects flying around him. And he never realizes there are no bugs on my side of the shelter because the cloud of bugs is so thick he can't see over there. It's wonderful. I know. I'm a genius. Again.. expect that book filled with more uberlight ideas coming soon.I'm not in Maine yet.. but damned close. July 4th maybe? I'll keep walking north and see what happens. I hear the trail gets easier in Vermont.. flat in New Hampshire.. and Maine is a cake walk. Damn it's good to be Traction. Live well. Now back to the real world.. goodbye computer.. hello woods..