Date: 2016-08-16
From: Long Pond Stream (Stealth)

To: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: clear sky

Went to sleep early....woke up after a couple if hours to write yesterdays journal. I was up and on the trail at 6:30, Rabbit, Subman and Suds were already 20 minutes ahead of me. I yelled into Blues Brother that I was leaving, he was still sleeping. I caught up with the others after an hour on the trail and went ahead after the first break we took. I was wanting to get over 20 miles in today and the other three were looking at 15 miles. Not long after that I caught up with Spirit of 76 and Iraqnia. So I hiked with them awhile until we took a brake at a mountain top. By then then three others had caught up. The rest of the afternoon Subman and I kept leapfrogging each other. I passed one guy who had to be the tallest person I have seen out here and asked him his height. He was 7'1", one of the tallest people I have ever seen...I passed Ralph Sampson in an airport once. We had to ford our second river of this trip, that is where I lost the others. They stayed on the other side and camped. As I was putting my shoes back on a guy stopped on the other side and asked if anyone would like a Coke. He had four and Rabbit, Subman, and Suds were on the other side. They said yes and called over to me to ask if I wanted one. Suds was in her Crocks and said I will bring it to you. So I said sure,,and she brought me one. I twist the lid to the bottle and it blows up all over and gets my shirt. I still have 3/4 of a bottle and I take my shirt off and rinse it dunk it in the river and ring it out a couple of times. At that time Suds is about halfway across the river and hits a slick rock and goes down. Not completely but gets half her shorts wet and part of her shirt too. I feel so bad since she was doing me a favor. At least they were getting ready to camp and she could get some other clothes on and dry those out some. I said good bye thanked Suds for her kindness and pressed on. I had over five miles to go and it was after 4:30. The trail started out fast and I was flying it was a slight uphill but it was still fast. It got a little more rooty and rocky as I went but nothing bad. I passed Not Chris and he was looking for a stealth tent sight. They had a restoration project going on and didn't want anyone camping within two miles of where we forded the river. He not quite out of the two miles when he found a great ace to set up his tent. He told me if I found a better place not too far ahead to yell back at him. So I went on and did find one, yelled back but not sure if he heard me or not as I was close to a water fall. I catch up with a hiker named Squirrel. We are getting close to the Lean-to and she has had a long day. I hike about five minutes with her and we get to a stream just before the lean-to and fill up our bottles. We get to the lean-to and no one has claimed any spots yet and rain is in the forecast so we both claim a spot by throwing our sleeping mats out. Two other girls come and take spots and not long after that a couple claim the last two. I go to make dinner and for the 100 mile wilderness I bought Mountain House dinners. They are expensive but have meat in them and a lot more calories. You boil water throw it in the bag and they cook inside the bag for 15 minutes. I go to get my spoon and it is not there. After the last town I started putting it in a new location because I was keeping it in my food bag and I was getting holes and in bags the food was actually stored in. So changing things gets you out of habits and I must have left the spoon at the last camp site. I double check my back pack and food bags and it is not there. I put my hand down where my water bladder is suppose to go in my pack(I don't put the bladder in there) and find my foot powder bottle lid came off and foot powder all over in there. Itnis only in that area and not all over in the pack though. So dinner is at hand... I have a bag of spaghetti and no spoon. I ask around and no one has an extra. So I look around and see my Coke bottle. I cut down the side to the center of the bottom and do the same about 1/8 of the way around the bottle to make a spoon. It actually worked quite well. I even avoided cutting myself in the process. So as I am eating the mice start running around the shelter. I don't like the sound of that and decide to set the tent up. It is getting close to 8:00 and getting dark, so I get the tent up, bear bag hung. Throw my pack in the tent and remember the foot powder. I take everything out of the pack so I can take it outside and just shake it upside down. As I am shaking it my camp spoon falls out . I wipe down my wetones and ziplock bags I keep in the same compartment as the powder was in and wipe the rest of the bag down. I repack the things I won't need and am ready for bed. I am 35 miles into the 100 mile wilderness and it hasn't been bad. Kind of a roller coaster of ups and downs today but once we hit the 50 mile mark it levels out until we hit Katahdin. I went over the 2100 mile mark today, 2189.2 is the finish mark. I got in over 20 today and probably my toughest day left. It was a beautiful day to hike