Date: 2010-08-28
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: Perham Stream
Miles today: 4.7

28th August Saturday ¢ 4.7 to Perham StreamThe kids woke us up at daybreak. The Bates group gave me some granola bars and tried to pawn off their oatmeal supply on us. These guys are learning how to lead these orientation groups. The Bates kids seemed more like they were just out camping rather than ¢training¢. The perspective college pays the leaders with food and transportation.I was lazy and didn¢t get any water before going to bed last night. My guts feel terrible after sleeping on an empty stomach. I feel dehydrated today. I feel nauseous when I get water from the nearby stream. Eating breakfast helped a lot. I¢ve reduced my dinner rations by half at this point. I eat too many snacks during the day. I keep telling myself that it¢ll be a lot easier to tame this appetite before going back to civilization. Weight gain is at the forethought of my daily brain exercise. I guess I¢m capable of doing the impossible¢¦I¢ve gained weight on the AT!Cheeseburger wants me to hike 8 miles to the next shelter.¢Don¢t you want to hang around with the coolest guy on the AT?¢ asks Cheeseburger I¢m not going very far today. From the way I feel, I won¢t even walk 8 miles. Cheeseburger is hesitant to camp around me now. He believes every time I camp with him, a group of college kids are already there.¢They¢re taking up all the room in my shelters!¢ yells Cheeseburger. He packs his bags and leaves the shelter. I¢m drinking cold spring water and haven¢t packed up my tent yet. I¢m taking my time today! When I finally assembled my backpack it wasn¢t to leave. I laid inside the shelter and enjoyed a beautiful morning instead.The floor of the shelter here is made of wooden branches. The limbs are sawed, chiseled, and sanded down to the diameter of a tennis ball. We refer to this shelter flooring method as ¢sleeping on baseball bats¢. It¢s as comfortable as it sounds. I¢m glad I slept on the dirt behind the shelter last night. Not that there was room in the shelter, with all the Bates and Bowden kids. I lay on the baseball bats in my sleeping bag and write in my journal. I try sending Lish and Karen another text message but my phone looses service. My phone is causing me problems lately. The battery will not charge. When I get to Stratton I¢m going to have to figure out what to do about my dying phone.Fig and SuperMax arrive. All the talking kept breaking my concentration on my journal. It¢s not comfortable sitting on this shelter floor. The two ladies I met on Saddleback yesterday aren¢t far behind. Everyone¢s talking and I feel the need to get moving.Initially I feel horrible when I start walking. Each step sent a shockwave to my quivering stomach. Within a few questionable indigestion moments I started feeling better. I felt sick while they were talking at the shelter, but now I¢m feeling fine. It¢s amazing what a little walk in the woods can do for you. Sickness subsided and I¢m having a good morning. It had to be 10am before I left the shelter. I have no watch so I have no clue what time of the day it is.After 2.2 miles I stop at Orbeton Stream. Earlier I climbed beside a giant cascade waterfall. When I reached the top, there was a logging road running straight through the middle of the waterfall. The logging road appears to be used frequently. The sunlight shines down with warmth on some flat rocks by the waterfall. This is where I¢ll get cleaned up today. I wash off my nasty feet and legs also. My toenail beds are black and my feet look like a Hobbit. I rinse my crusty, crispy, and flaky socks in the cool water. The coldness of the stream made my dehydrated brain feel mushy! I¢m feeling relaxed enough for a name. Out comes my sleeping mat and I lie down in the hot sun on the river rocks.¢Yoo didn¢t make it fah¢ says Fig.He wakes me up just as I was about to start dreaming of ice cream sundaes. ¢I¢m not going far today¢ I respond without lifting my head from the ground. This slow 10 mile/day pace is killing me. All I want to do is walk. I get bored when I¢m not walking and the best cure for boredom is sleep. I can¢t sleep when people wake me up! I eat a little candy corn and fall back asleep. This time I¢m further away from the trail some no one will bother me.I have no idea how long I slept but when I awake my leg was resting at a weird angle. It¢s sore and hard to move. I fell asleep on a big flat rock. Hours must have passed by because the sun is in a different location. For some reason I¢m always in a hurry after I wake from naps. I rush to leave but that was a great little cat nap!Nice and easy with these freshly rested legs. My brain feels brighter and more alert. The uphill barely made me break a sweat. Nothing that remarkable happened until I found my campsite for the night. It¢s below the trail by another stream. It was actually the third stream crossing since the waterfall nap.Below I can see a one person tent spot between the pine trees. The land surrounding the tent site is divided by the black rushing waters from the nearby stream. The cool waters are very close to the edge of where I¢ll put my tent. The problem is getting there. Getting to the campsite required careful foot placements on large black rocks. The contrast between the dark black rock and green moss made it look like I was walking on eggplants. The whole campsite is a peninsula surrounded by fallen trees and the stream. The only order to the chaos is my single tent site. I hope a moose doesn¢t trample me!I seem to be following some kind of pattern. When I feel lonely I spend time around other hikers. Sometimes I feel like being alone. When I feel the need to feel that way I tend to hike alone and sleep alone.Put the tent up and took another long peaceful nap. Felling pretty happy! Feeling great compared to this morning. I wrote Lish a letter since I haven¢t been able to contact her in a while. I haven¢t spent enough time in town lately. My phone hasn¢t had a chance to fully charge in a while.Dinner was fantastic! Lish made me beef w/onion gravy and a pouch of sawmill gravy. She also filled my box with powdered baked potatoes. Tonight I¢m eating all that but at 34 ration of what I¢ve been eating. I¢m not that hungry actually.I spend the night with my head right by the rolling waves of Perham Stream. Sing me to sleep! Sweat dreams!