Date: 2014-05-29
To: Day 5 Home
Miles today: 0.0

Hiking - EveningsAt the end of a days hike I was usually fairly exhausted. But that did not matter. There were mandatory chores that had to be done. Upon arriving at the nights camping spot, the first order of business was to select a tent site. It is strictly first come first serve. You'd often inquire of others already there if there were any good tent sites and where. Before taking off the backpack I'd walk around the area looking for the best possible site. The primary consideration was a flat, non-rocky area. Once selected the backpack comes off and the tent and ground cover are unstrapped. After the first few days I became pretty efficient in setting up the tent, probably 10 minutes or so. If the tent was dry from the previous use, I'd immediately unload my gear into the tent.....always putting items in the same places. If the tent was not dry, I'd leave it empty to air dry which did not take very long. Usually the next step would be to fill up and treat my water bottles. Depending on the weather and the dryness of the clothes I was wearing, I'd either change into dry/warm clothes or prepare dinner. And also about this time I'd send a quick text message to Wendy to let her know I was at a site and settling in for the night.Almost always dinner was the sole warm meal of the day. My favorite were dehydrated pouch meals (Mountain House brand). For such you just had to heat water to boiling, pour it into the pouch, stir, re-seal and wait about 10 minutes for it to cook. Then you eat it right out of the pouch. Very easy cleanup. The second choice was Ramon noodles and a pouch of tuna. In this case you had to cook the noodles in a pot and was more trouble to clean up afterwards. I'd usually supplement dinner with some dried fruit, trail mix or a Snickers bar. Dinner time was usually a communal time with hikers gathering around the picnic table at a shelter or a fire-pit and log seats at a camping area. The next chore was to provide hiker entertainment......via hanging your bear bag. The bear bag contained all your food supply, any garbage with food smells, your cooking pots/utensils and scented toothbrush/paste (anything that could attract the highly sensitive nose of a black bear). In theory hanging a bear bag is simple; however, it is not always the case. Watch any YouTube video and you'll see the perfect tree with the perfect branch, one throw and you're done. In real life there are many problems. Many times it was difficult to find any trees nearby that had branches that were of a reasonable height. Anyway, the real trick was being able to throw one end of your cord over the branch (attaching something with weight like a rock, I used a little drawstring sack with a rock inside) without it getting snagged on an undesirable object. I have to admit some level of expertise in this endeavor. I frequently was successful in one or two attempts. However there were times when I became the entertainment for unknown reasons in taking a dozen or more attempts before getting that darn cord over a branch. Ultimately I was always able to get my bag hanging at least 8-10 feet off the ground and at least 6-8 feet away from the tree trunk. In the early stages of my hike in GA, they provided bear cable systems near all shelters. These were permanently attached steel cables and pulleys between tall trees. In such cases you merely had to lower a cable, attach your bear bag and hoist the cable up again.I usually retreated to my tent around 7pm. If I had not changed clothes earlier, it was done now. If warm enough I'd bare my feet to let them air out while I laid down and rested. During this time I'd write my daily journal entry into the notes only IPhone. If Verizon service allowed I'd also upload to the TrailJournals site for all my fans. The last tasks each evening were to take care of my feet (rubbing a suave called "Bag Balm" on them and covering with socks so it soaked in overnight) and to review the AT Guide to see what was in store for tomorrow. It was usually about 8pm by this point and I'd settle in my sleeping bag and try to sleep....usually not very long at all.The end of another rewarding day.Today's pic is of my cooking system. It consists if a fuel canister (replaced at any outfitter as needed), a stove that screwed into the canister and the pot on top. It was quite efficient hearing water to boiling just a few minutes,