Date: 2009-08-11
From: West Branch Pleasant River 

To: 3.5 Mountain (halfway 'tween Third and Fourth)
Miles today: 7.8

III. Report The general plan was to hike to the Cloud Pond Lean-to, just over a 10 mile hike with a good number of 500-700 ft climbs thrown in to make it challenging. This started out as one of the clearest mornings and stayed that way until dark. I had another fall early in the morning, and although it wasn¢t very serious, I was thinking about it all day. Later, I had a rough rock scramble up Chairback Mountain. This section included a good deal of hiking in the open rocks on the ridges, affording me many good photo ops. I had not seen many SOBOers recently and only one or two NOBOers in the past day or so. I was also fortunate to have decent cell phone coverage for a change. It was at this point that I began the question the wisdom in continuing to hike, vice getting off the trail and getting my chest checked out. I didn¢t want to call Libra Lady, as I knew she would be extremely worried. I called Ms P&B and asked her to check out the options for how to get me off the trail in a safe manner. My heart was speaking to try to make it on to Monson, rest up a day or two, continue hiking another 80+ miles to Stratton where I had a food drop box and then make a final go/no go decision whether to continue hiking. My heart even considered making a plea for support in my guest book to encourage me to continue. Then my head would ask: ¢Are you crazy?¢ I continued hiking, however, my mind was more locked into not having another fall, this time a more serious one. My right side was hurting a bit more and the rock scramble had really caused some discomfort. And not being able to use fully use my right trekking pole, had caused my right knee to become more sore. I had summitted Third mountain and was proceeding to Fourth Mountain, when I decided to call it a day, a distance less than 8 miles (hence location label as 3.5 Mountain). It was on a rock outcropping, cell coverage was good and a storm was approaching on the horizon ¢ again!! I pitched my tent with some difficulty, high winds were blowing it down before I was able to secure the tiedowns with rocks. I found a sheltered area to boil my water for dinner, ate and then retired to read my maps. I called Ms P&B and she was outstanding, reporting that if I could make the Long Pond shelter and stand on the roof, I would have cell coverage and Shaw¢s Lodging in Monson would dispatch a shuttle to pick me up, even meet me at the shelter with help if needed. This sounded great to me. My map study wasn¢t all that positive.   Continuing to Monson showed three fordings, two of which were described as difficult in high water. The hike to Long Pond Lean-to was 8 miles, and I began to wonder about the cell coverage on top of the shelter: was that for Verizon or AT&T cell phones? Mine was an AT&T which was using a Cellular Extended Service, and it seems that Verizon had superior coverage in this area. And then there was the option of backtracking to any one of several trails; however, my maps did not provide any information on where one could get help off these side trails, and I wasn¢t very optimistic about climbing the rock scramble again.   I went to bed with the plan to find the quickest, safest way off the AT the next morning.V. POD: My last NASA work assignment was on a detail to the Texas Space Grant Consortium. The TSGC is a tenant at the UT Center for Space Research in Austin. The ISS program office had sponsored the NASA Means Business Project, which was managed out of the TSGC office. Also, the ISS had started a college engineering design program, which was quite similar to the TSGC Design Challenge. Another TSGC activity was the Liftoff Project, which ISS had provided some general support in the past. My efforts were to strengthen and improve these interfaces.POD: Dr T and Dr F. Dr T was the first aerospace engineering department chairman and is currently the Director of the Center for Space Research. He also is the PI for the GRACE mission, and was recognized last year for his 50 years of contribution to space research and education. Dr F is currently the Director of TSGC and still teaches classes at UT. I think he has earned nearly every teaching award available. Dr T and Dr F were some of my first undergrad aerospace engineering professors, and it was certainly a pleasure to work with them again today.