Date: 2006-08-02
From: Tucker-Johnson Shelter (Maine Junction)

To: Wintturi Shelter
Miles today: 18.9

I could defiantly fill the effects of the Long Trail Inn this morning after getting into camp really late last night. It is one thing to go out and party on a typical Friday night and sleep the results off in your comfy bed at home but when you are sleeping on the ground and have to get up to face a nearly 19 mile day of hiking you should reconsider your actions. I¢m not sure if Shasta is moving quiet as slow as I am this morning but I am going to have to take it easy for a while. Jangle, on the other hand, was up and out of camp around daybreak on her way into Killington to resupply. Shasta and I hiked together most of the morning and as we passed through Gifford Woods State Park a thru hiker flagged us down. His name was Don and he has already completed the trail as one of the first 2006 thru hikers to reach Katahdin. He was already back on the trail but instead of pounding more miles out he was treating the remainder of the Class of 2006 to some lovely trail magic. As we set under a small covered pavilion enjoying the gifts of soda, cookies, sandwiches, and donuts the rest of our gang (Donkey, Hot Springs, Dirt, Shasta, H-bomb, Baro, and Leprechaun) one by one stopped in as well. We finished up, gave Don big thanks, and continued on the trail. We passes by Kent Pond next to the Mountain Meadow Lodge before taking a short road walk on Thundering Brook Road down to the base of Quimby Mountain. The climb up Quimby Mountain was very boring with no rewards of a view once on top. The only exciting thing about this section was the piles and piles of moose poop. It gave us hopes of catching a glimpse of one of these huge guys. Well we ended up not seeing a moose but found quite a few mosquitoes around Stony Brook Shelter that were similar in size. By this time Donkey had caught up with me and we walked down to Stony Brook to find a crystal clear brook with holding pool just big enough to lie down inside. We took turns along with a few other hikers passing by enjoying the ice-cold water and filling our water bottles for the push to Wintturi Shelter 10 miles to the north. After about 3 miles I met back up with Mike and Zan the couple from Australia just after crossing the Continental Divide trail marker and just before the 1,700-mile marker. It has been a while since I have seen them but knew they were just ahead of us from their journal entries. They mentioned making it to the Wintturi Shelter this evening so I continued to push on. About 2 miles form the shelter I started running low on water and there was none to be found. I ended up skipping the side trail over to the lookout cabin and focused on reaching the shelter as soon as possible to get some water. Just before the shelter on Sawyer Hill I caught up with Jangles and we cruised on the rest of the way to the shelter and got there around 6:15pm. By the time we got to the shelter I was completely out of water and my first stop was the creek just behind the camping area. Glad that I had swapped my MSR Miox out earlier in the trip for my MSR pump, I pumped water and drank until I could drink no more. I sat next to the creek for a short while trying to recover and off in the distance I could hear everyone that was behind me for the day entering into the shelter area. Once back on my feet I sat my tent up and fixed a nice dinner of rice, chicken, and avocado. We were enjoying the fire when Mike and Zan came in just as exhausted as the rest of us. They slumped to an uncomfortable sitting position with their packs on for about 30 minutes before deciding to set up camp. The rest of us one by one disappeared to our tents and was shortly off to sleep from a hot, exhausting day Tonight at the Wintturi Shelter: Donkey, Hot Springs, Shasta, H-Bomb, Jane,Baro, Mike, Zan, Coach K, Wild Bill, Fuzz, several section hikers, and I.