Date: 2012-07-09
From: Lambert's Ridge

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 7.4
Weather: broken clouds

2012/7/9  7.4 milesHexacuba shelterBackpacking reduces life to its barest essentials. Take a step, breathe. Hoist yourself up on another rock. Feel the burn in your calves and the ache in your knees as your body continues to win the fight against gravity. Feel the weather intensely. Take it personally when it looks like rain. Eat food with the sense that it is being translated directly into fuel. Fall asleep on a little camping pad, exhaustion turning a spartan bed into the best sleep you've ever had. The long periods alone make me value my friends more. It makes me friendlier to strangers. Sometimes in my crowded world I feel like I'll never get a second alone again, never be able to sit and think and breathe without an interruption from a phone, a computer, a coworker, a dog. Perversely, I now want someone to talk to. I followed my plan of making it a short day. I had camped a little farther north than I thought. What I had thought was another climb up to an open slab of granite turned out to be just a turn in the trail. This meant that my plan of eating breakfast in the sun, sitting on a big rock, was foiled. Instead I found a handy log and ate my breakfast there. The climb up Smarts mountain was Maine-esque.  There was even a log ladder and rebar pounded into the stone to get me up a slick section. After last year I don't find it more difficult or more intimidating than any other steep chunk of trail, but register entries indicate that some of the nobos thought it was tough. I climbed up the fire tower at Smarts to contemplate the view. It sure is pretty here. I usually appreciate it on a more local level, enjoying the forest as I pass by. But I was glad to have climbed the tower to get the full 360 effect. Water has been a little scarce do at the north branch of Jacobs brook I got a full four liters of water, then headed the last half a mile up the mountain to Hexacuba shelter. The shelter is beautiful, of log construction and in yurt shape. It's cool enough up here that I put on my fleece top when I changed into camp clothes. I notice that my daily wear is starting to become stiff with salt. I'm looking forward to doing laundry in Glencliff. Between the heat and the terrain, I've been sweating shall we say vigorously. Of course no one was at the shelter when I got here. That's no surprise as it's quite early. However the shelter log goes back to 2010 and it's obviously a lightly used shelter. I think that's because it's .2 miles up a steep side trail. Maybe people don't want to make the effort. I'll be interested to see if I have company. After changing my clothes I ate for half an hour, and I haven't even made dinner yet. I skipped dinner last night and lunch today. Yesterday I was tired, and at lunch I didn't have enough water. But I think I've made up for the lack. For the first time this trip I'm set up in the shelter. The bugs here don't seem bad. Also, it's quite windy. My last forecast is several days old. The sky is clear but the wind makes me wonder about incoming weather. I'd rather stay in a shelter if it's going to be icky out. And if not, well, all to the better. When I read the register, I was delighted to see entries from 2010 by hikers I knew. The Canadian Geese, Cheese, Little Aspen, Toothpick, Rabid, City Squirrel, and many more. Seeing their entries put a smile on my face.