Date: 2007-08-19
From: Tom Leonard Lean-To, Mass

To: .5 miles south of Fernside Rd, Mass
Miles today: 10.7

I woke up to "Bigfoot" talking. NOw, I want yall to know that I am not talking bad about bigfoot here. I know that if you stay at a shelter; you have to be prepared to be awakened late at night with people coming in or very early with people talking or not being able to get to sleep for people talking; so, with that in mind. I have noticed over the years that older men on this trail wake up very early and when they wake up; they start pounding coffee. Well, you know old men like to talk; so, they kind of talk to themselves or sing or even will go, "you awake yet", or "you are going to have to get up to make some big miles". I am always like, "man, Im sleeping." Anyway, so bigfoot is talking pretty loud a little after daylight. I try to sleep a little more; but, to no avail. When "Cul De Sac" gets up and comes from her tent to start preparing for the day; I do get up and start doing my thing. Her brother then wakes up and comes over. THere is a big dilema here at this shelter to get water because it is way down to the creek. Anyway, as she goes to get water, I ask "Moosehead" if they take turns getting water. Cul De Sac hears this and stops. I immediately knew that I had touched on a nerve and said that I was sorry and I should not have asked. A "trail marriage" has it's little problems. I did get going around 10:30 or so and wanted to get to a phone to call "Mr Happy". There was a possibility that his dad would come get me and take me back to their home for Dinner. I did not have the "MOJO" today though. I went down to MAss 23 and rested s0me and decided that I needed a nap. WIth the mouse keeping me awake along with "good morning Big Foot"; I was still sleepy. As I was pondering this Cul De Sac came by with a nice big smile. I thought to myself as I watched her skinny butt go by, "this is the first thru hiker women to even be friendly to me". Most thru hiker women will barely even say hi to me; with the exception of "Blue Yonder"; "Gypsy Spirit"; and "Tumbleweed". Thru hiker women are so spoiled. They have 10 guys chasing them all the time. ANyway, I went up about .2 miles and set up my tent and took a nice ling nap. As these naps go: I woke up with only an hour or two of daylight left. I got going and climbed up to The Ledges looking for water and then went to Mt Wilcox South Lean-To looking for water. I found it; but, I did not like the way it looked. SO, I moved on as dusk was approaching and really thirsty. I did find a really small spring that was nice and cold. I had to do some hydrological engineering to get enough to quench my thirst and get enough to cook. It took some time and it was about 30 minutes after dark when I got going. The mosquitos were really after me. I hiked in the dark for another 5 miles, maybe, and then set my tent up again. I do alot of night hiking and it is such a "wild" experience. I see all of the eyes reflecting from my head lamp. Big, low set eyes(bear); smaller high set eyes(deer); and all kinds of little eyes(porcupine, racoon, rabbit, stc). The other night, I saw a pair of large low set eyes that I did not recognize and thought irrationally that they looked evil! I like cryto-zoology and always wonder how much we know about what is out there. I got spooked and scared. It was a feeling somewhat like waking up from a terribly bad dream and feeling a dark presence. I pulled it together and said a prayer and recited, "though I walk in the shadow of the Valley of THe dead..... I did find me a good spot to sleep on alot of pine needles andwas sleeping well until a very large animal came within 20 yards of my tent. I woke up and yelled at what ever it was an soon was back to sleep.