Date: 2015-07-22
From: Monson

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up before 6am again. I think it might be because I've stopped taking sleeping pills. The bunkroom was just me, Not Yet, and Smasher. We were all awake about the same time and making the most of the Internet before we headed into the wilderness. The hostel served breakfast about 7am, and it was pretty good. Plenty of potatoes, fried eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes. I was absolutely full by the time I had to leave. I gave some of my food to Smasher, since we're splitting a food drop. There is a deal where you can pay $25 to fill a bucket with whatever resupply stuff you need, and the other hostel in town will drop the bucket at a certain location in the middle of the wilderness. I got back onto the trail at about 9am. The trail started off flat, and was actually mostly flat all day, but the trail was very rooty and rocky. The rocks were all shiny slate, and I was just sliding everywhere. It was actually dangerous, and would have been hellish if the weather had been bad. The weather was sunny most of the day, with no rain. The mud was still pretty bad, and there were plenty of opportunities to ruin my clean socks. I had to ford two rivers today, and I took my shoes and socks off each time. The rivers were thankfully a little warmer than yesterday, and the water was much clearer. In the shade, it's still hard to even see the bottom of the river which makes it hard to walk through. The parts of the river that get sunlight look yellow, almost golden. I still didn't remotely enjoy crossing either of them. It was still a nice hike overall though, and I made decent time even with fording. I should have been at the shelter before 4, but I saw a big painted sign saying Trail Magic. I followed a dirt road down to a cabin, where I was greeted by a couple of older men, a dog and a little parrot. They set me up with a drink, hot dog, and hamburger. I stayed there from about 3.30 to 5pm. It was a pretty cool little cabin, it had a bunch of bunks, electricity, a full sized cooker and sink. It's the kind of cabin that a lot of people dream of having. Still, kind of strange to see in the alleged "100 mile wilderness", though actually less strange than the train tracks just 5 mins before. After that I had to ford yet another river, but I've managed to keep my feet relatively dry today. However, my legs have a bunch of fresh bug bites now. There was a short uphill climb to the shelter, which will continue into a longer climb tomorrow morning. The shelter was already half full when I arrived, but I didn't plan to stay in it anyway, there are just too many bugs. I managed to get a tent site, but it's pretty poor and I'll probably be rolling down the hill all night. After setting up my tent and getting my water, I quickly went inside. I've been talking to BigBen and Smasher through the netting. Ive noticed how BigBen has left his net door a bit open, as if he doesn't even care that the mosquitoes are probably flying inside. I have to throw everything inside and zip up my door as quickly as possible every time, just in case something manages to fly in. Something I forgot to mention about yesterday- a woman hiker who BigBen and I met at Galehead hut in the whites sent us cookies! She had promised she would, but I was really surprised that she did (and even more surprised that BigBen managed to save some for me, because they were delicious). Tomorrow I have the choice between a 10 mile day and a 20 mile day. It's not really a choice, I have to go the 20 miles to not run out of food early. It's more mountainous than today, and I think it's going to be a long hard slog. It's going to be harder since there is officially a NOBO bubble here, and we're all going to be competing for the same spots at the shelters and camps. BigBen just told me that he has three bars of signal on his phone. That's more than he's been getting for most of the trail. I'm really not convinced about this wilderness I'm allegedly in.