Date: 2008-07-17
From: Canary Pond

To: Hamilton Lake Stream
Miles today: 9.1

Wow - the woman sharing the camping area near the lean to tonight walked all the way from the trailhead in Benson today! That¢s like 18 miles! I know this is common but I just don¢t know how people do it! She does report that her body is a bit out of whack, but she does not seem to express regret or anything. WOW! I just do not think I could walk that far with a pack. I mean just with stopping to pee alone I would have to get up and literally walk sunrise to sunset to fit in those miles in daylight! No, no, no! 9.1 miles is just fine for us! Her approach is admirable, though and I think I will use her as a reminder/role model on the long days! If we had to share this spot I would select no other camper! She¢s great! We had quite a chat ¢ especially Turtle, since I have been writing. She has worked seasonal jobs for parks for many seasons and has camped and worked in Alaska so of course Turtle is completely entranced in their conversation! Turtle did a little writing too, and reading ¢ in and from the ADK lean-to journal. This is the first night we have stayed near a lean-to (still using our tent ¢ just can¢t quite get into the spirit of the lean-to). Our Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 tent is doing us just fine and while it is small we are cozy and it seems clear that most of the weight savings comes from the all-mesh approach rather than the space. Then again we are short and like to be cozy with one another. In any case our new lightweight tent seems awesome! Oh, one more thing. We woke at 6:00 a.m. this morning to pee and went outside to see glorious mist on the pond as the sun was rising. Beautiful! Turtle ran around taking photos, which I found totally endearing! What a cutie¢¦.Since we were up anyway we stayed up and after a quick brekkie of cold cereal we hiked 6 miles by 12 and lunched by the Sacandaga River at Whitehouse. Didn¢t see anyone until we got here and Kris arrived. We made pasta salad with veggies, pre-packaged dressing and ramen noodles for lunch. Delicious but it didn¢t really work out so well in the bag since the bag got holes from the noodles ¢ next time I would do it in a pot/bowl or not at all. Delicious, though...and fascinating that you can ¢cook/make¢ ramen noodles with cold water!For dinner tonight we had ¢Taco-bowl¢, which we keep accidentally referring to as ¢Taco Bell¢. This was our first Ziploc meal and I really cannot say enough about how delicious it was and how easy! I invented this and did not write any suggestion for how much water to add so I was a bit concerned when I pulled it out of the food sack. Since Turtle was chatting with out new friend I tried to play it cool and just boiled up some water and then poured some into each of our bags in the cozies (Cheese powder from the Bakers Catalogue, Fantastic refried beans, and Harmony House vegetarian taco bits, and Minute rice. We also shared one hot sauce packet and some re-hydrated salsa on the side (could have been added into the bag though)). Holy cow deliciciousness! I still can¢t tell you how much water was required but it all worked out!Concern of the day: Our water filter seems a bit on the fritz. I cannot believe it! We have such bad luck with water filters. This one, is a MSR model that comes with a brush for internal scrubbing. We have had it a couple of years and ity has been great. We purchased it after rejecting the PUR Hiker (now produced by Katydyn, I think) because with that one you could only replace the filter (you can't clean it). The MSR one has done us good but as Turtle cleaned it today we suddenly realized that filter seems to be disintegrating before our eyes! Oh no! And there seems to be chunks of carbon coming out (like a new Brita does at home). Yikes! Do they sell filters at Piseco general store? Somehow I doubt it¢¦Uh oh! Will our journey be thwarted!? Luckily, our new friend and the conversation kept us from obsessively worrying about this over dinner¢¦but I wouldn¢t say I am not worried¢¦.