Date: 2005-03-14
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: broken clouds

Today was¢¦different. For the first time I hiked mainly alone, Traviswas having knee problems and decided he would start off with Jake and Raz,who was probably still having Blister problems. I wanted to make sure toget a spot in the shelter, as rain was forecasted and I didn¢t want tocarry a wet tent, so I cooked oatmeal for breakfast, filtered some water,and took off earlier than most. I had a headache when I woke up, andShane who was in the shleter last night and has a degree in some sort ofoutdoor recreation type thing suggested that I drink some more water thanI had been. So I also filtered a full three liters of water beforesetting off since there wasn¢t supposed to be much good water on the tripfrom Hawk Mountain to Gooch Mountain. Only a 7.3 mile hike today but itincluded Sasafrass mountain, otherwise known as kackayo¢ass mountain, oryourassisgrass mountain. Oddly enough Sassafrass didn¢t bother me thatmuch, but the smaller stuff after it did. Since I was hiking alone, mostof the day I didn¢t have any problems with my legs or ankles until I waspassed by Badger (GA-ME 02) and his brother who is attempting a thru thisyear. Travis also surprisingly passed me at one point. I tried to keepup with both of them, and both times I couldn¢t keep up and ended up doingsome damage to my legs like a fool. Only three days in and I¢ve learnedto adopt the HYOH (hike your own hike) mantra. I did however, have a goodtime taking pictures today, I snapped a few of the trail in the fog andrain that persisted through my entire hike and then took some longerexposures of Justus Creek.Hiking solo has its advantages, I had a lot of time to think about stufftoday, mostly the gear and the food that I¢ll buy when I get the chance.Definitely picking up some chicken in a pouch, beef jerkey, vegetables,Lipton noodles, more ramen, tortillas, cheese¢¦OK, that¢s enough with thefood, onto gear: definitely looking at a new sleeping pad, maybe a z-restthat I won¢t have to worry about inflating or deflating, and also somecamp shoes, probably some other stuff that I can¢t think of right now aswell.The shelter appears not-too-crowded so far, a lot of people are pushingforward a mile or two to a camp somewhere in hopes of avoiding theovercrowding. I¢m somewhat glad we had the overcrowding last night, astwo southbounders who were only 1 day away from finishing showed up.Brett and Eri (sorry if I mispelled the names, my memory isn¢t too great)provided some advice and some entertaining stories for everyone, good luckto those fellas. 12.4 miles tomorrow, quite a hike and the longest yet,I¢m planning on another early start, but unfortunately, probably a latearival at Wood¢s Hole shelter. To my benefit, Travis now has the tent, sothat opens up a few pounds and a LOT of room in my pack. He can keep it,too, since he was passing me today (and not too politely I might add).I¢m beginning to develop the ¢hiker appetite¢, man I feel like I could eatanything in sight right now, and fortunately for me the hiker boxes inGooch Mountain Shelter are FULL of food and supplies, HOORAY FOR THEGOOCH. I might be the youngest guy in camp tonight: so far Redhat, Kevin,Longhaul Fulro, Skylark, Newbie, and a few I¢m sure I¢m missing are goingto either shelter or tent it here. Last night three wisconsin girls, nowaffectionately called ¢the niblets¢ said they wereplanning on making ithere today. I could go for some conversation with someone nearer my age.Well, time for more food¢¦.