Date: 2004-08-10
From: Stony Brook Shelter

To: Look Out Trail/Cabin
Miles today: 7.5

0.2 off -trail miles9 a.m. Comfortable night -- a break from the cold snap, but I've heard we're back to cold nights again shortly. Better for hiking, though.There were enough coals left in the firepit this morning to have hot coffee -- what a treat. I'm trying to carry just enough stove fuel for dinners, and am low on that at present. Another fire tonight would be great -- even if it is "for rookies"!8 p.m. Went up to the roof-top lookout to watch the sunset, but it's so cloudy that it's hard to tell where west is! Decided to stop here tonight, well short of my 15-mile goal, just because it's so pretty -- an enclosed wood cabin whose owners leave it open for thru-hikers as long as there are no fires -- a shame, since there's a very nice fireplace and screen just begging to be used. Nevermind, it's warm and draft-free, and I haven't seen evidence of mice yet -- and it's a nice spot to rest my gams after today's climbing.Rael appeared around 5 p.m., thinking I might have stopped here. We sat chatting for a while about what's ahead. He's done a lot of hiking in the White Mountains and Maine, so should prove a great resource and hiking companion. I think he enjoys my company, too.Was feeling a bit in a funk today after hours of uphill (1100 feet in one stretch) when I came across Sarge, whom I hadn't seen since Sassafras Gap Shelter in North Carolina! He was napping against his pack under a tree. "I've been waiting for you," he grinned sleepily, sitting up groggily. He and Little Engine parted back at Davenport Gap -- "She's the one who got me started on the noon naps," he said. "She wasn't much into the hiking." We chatted and he took my picture and wrote down the names of the hikers he would have met earlier and those coming up behind me. Though he's southbounding this section, he may be up at Katahdin in the last part of September. Anyone who can give him a ride down from there to the nearest Amtrak station is in for a treat! He is a delight. There was good raspberry picking today on the second peak, getting sweeter as the elevation decreased. I met "Photo Op", an elderly gentleman hiker who was glad that I pointed out an unusual cluster of fungus on a log -- with round, spiky headed tops -- so that he could take a picture. Lots of interesting looking mushrooms up this way -- some bright yellow disks, some flat like patches of brown suede, one today that looked like a perfectly browned cheese souffle, another bright orange fungus that grows like curly cabbage leaves, and a red-capped mushroom that the critters seem to nibble at a lot. There's also a white fungus that grows up in the shape of coral. Today I saw a rotting log so covered in tiny wood ears that it looked as if it had been wrapped in lace.Unfortunately, there is a fungicidal maniac who seems to take pleasure in topping every mushroom within reach of the trail. By the time I see them, they're usually upended in the path. (What did the shrooms do to deserve this?)Also saw two piles of scat today, pecan-sized pellets. A herbivore, I guessed -- but a moose? Would have thought they'd produce something more substantial, like a cow pie. I'll have to ask around.Also have seen lots and lots of woodland frogs in the past month, spotted, striped, in every shade of brown and green to blend in with the vegetation, from half an inch to four inches long in body. They always seem determined to cross the trail just before I'm upon them.The wind is getting up and Rael said rain is due overnight. Glad to be warm and dry.Guess I won't have the place to myself tonight -- Joker, Party Girl, Spice Man and Lorax have just arrived. So much for a quiet night! Looks like they're staying downstairs, though, so I can spread out in the loft.Was hungry to read this afternoon, but since I put my last book in the bounce box, I had to resort to what was left in the cabin -- Lee Stroebel's "The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity." Interesting reading, but hardly investigative journalism. Should have taken Part II of "Love in the Time of Cholera" which Little Chicken left in the privy at the last shelter. (I can't bear the thought of ripping a book into sections, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez might have gotten a kick out of the idea of his novel floating around the wilderness in nonsequential chapters.)