Date: 2010-07-26
From: Morgan Stewart Shelter

To: Telephone Pioneer Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: broken clouds

Day 7 - Sorry for the silence past few days but the little cell phone battery gave out and there is spotty cell coverage...OK so this is the day we get lost...actually lost twice but let me begin at the the beginning... We were really hungry last night and started eating just about everything in our packs. Started with Ramen noodles followed by huge backpacker Lasagne with dried green beans. Still hungry so Genevieve fixes Cheesy Couscous with Brewers Yeast. We think about fixing the Cheesy Grits too (anything Cheesy is good) but since 1.0 started giving away all the food when his pack was heavy we are in fact now supplied with just barely enough to get us to our next mail stop. Seemed like a good idea at the time though - the pack was too damn heavy. We are still hungry so we (Genevieve) fix some hot chocolate. "Boss" shows up with a full bag of Keebler Chocolate Chip cookies!! Genevieve does everything because she is wonder mountain woman and I am totally tired hurting everywhere and worthless. Still hungry so I eat half of "Clarity's" deli sandwich. "Beaverchief" is totally amazed our awesome array of spices that Sofia has supplied all labeled in separate individual plastic containers. He goes for the olive oil, onion powder and garlic powder but passes on the red chili flakes for his spaghetti and freeze dried broccoli. "Beaverchief" is a mid-twenties thru-hiker (has already walked 1400+ miles) and has dried all of his food in advance by himself and has it shipped to him by his parents - and he eats like a family of six. He has an old external frame pack from 1963 and a 12" beat up old aluminum skillet that he bought on the trail in Damascus for 50 cents. It is all black and beat to hell. He cooks at the shelters only on an open fire but then leaves just before dark to sleep on the mountain top so he can see the sunrise. All the rest of us have the latest shiny REI ultralight equipment and sleep in multi-colored tents near the shelter. There is a sense of community but we never see the sunrise because we are deep under the forest canopy. I like "Beaverchief". We offer him some Brewer's Yeast - never had that before. I explain that it is very high in B vitamins and tastes kinda cheesy. He nods his head - "Beaverchief" is a man of few words. Well in the morning I guess after a week Genevieve and I are getting on each other's nerves or we are starting to smell bad or both. As I may have mentioned earlier we decided to hike in the same clothes each day rather than ruin any others. In 30 minutes it doesn't make any difference if you started out with clean clothes or week old trail ones. So we rinse them out each night and they aren't really all that cold and damp in the morning as you may be thinking. But I know I am annoying in the tent - I can never get settled and the damn thing is too small and my knees and ankles hurt and legs won't work right and I grunt and groan and get tangled up in the sleeping bag and cuss when I can't find the flashlight and when I finally get settled into a loud unconcious snore I suppose its fair that Genevieve has had about enough after a full week of this. So when we discuss the trail plan in the morning we are shall we say a bit short with one another and the rest of the day is one of the non-communicative mode type. Genevieve has the maps. All I have are the white blazes so I try to memorize the map. This exercise is supposed to be helping me with short term memory loss. Theoretically we have a 9.0 mile easy hike to Telephone Pioneer Shelter. As per usual Genevieve has her pack ready to go while I'm still fussing and rearranging mine so she heads out at 7:15. We are both feeling strong because of the big meal last night and the ginormous peanut butter globs with rye crisps for breakfast. I have stopped trying to spread the peanut butter on the cracker which invariably breaks but instead just dig into the jar for a large glob and then follow it with the cracker. Lots easier and tastes the same. I take off at 7:30 singing a song and following the hypnotizing white blazes. At about 7:50 I am suddenly frightened. Frightened by the thought that I have left the bear bag rope back on the rock at camp. I remember seeing it. There is a definite picture in my head that validates me seeing it. I don't remember putting it in my pack. The one responsibility I have in camp is the bear bag because with my strong baseball arm and expert knot tying ability I am the bear baggin pro. I argue with myself for about ten minutes - did I pack it or did Genevieve pack it - and maybe cause we are not talking she does not tell me she packed it? Surely she would have told me? I struggle to replay the video in my head. No luck. Only the blue screen of death. On the trail everybody is responsible for their own pack. And my responsibility is the bear bag rope. So then I finally turn around - I can't really tell you how reluctantly I turn around...but I can't fail at the one thing that I am good at and responsible for. You do the math - 1.0 mph times .5 hour equals .5 miles already traveled. So I hoof it back to camp and guess what - no bear bag rope. Genevieve must have taken it...why didn't she tell me? What if a bear or other varmint eats all of our food because we can no longer hang it? Well anyway there are no better options so I head out again after adding one extra mile to the journey. I find Genevieve at 11:30 resting pleasantly by the banks of Nuclear Lake. It is so very pleasant - a little grass embankment, beautiful little lake. She fixes Ramen noodles followed by spaghetti with meat sauce and green beans. She naps and reads her book. I take my boots off, dry out my socks and fish. Catch two very large (strangely large) crappie on a yellow popper bug. I suggest that we cook 'em up but Genevieve counters that anything that comes from a place called Nuclear Lake should not be consumed. Actually there used to be a small secret government nuclear lab located here but there was a fire and the lab was closed in 1972. The water has been tested and is perfectly safe but none of the thru-hikers will drink it opting for the government cover-up conspiracy theory instead. Just to be safe we do the same. We spend a very pleasant 2 hours here with just a short 2.8 miles to the shelter. Gonna be a good day after all. When I get to the north end of the lake I find Genevieve waiting for me and she explains that the white blazes have so to speak petered out and she thinks that we should take the yellow trail that reconnects with the the AT. The AT at this point is under maintenance and the yellow trail is the so-called detour. She is basing this on information from "Wood Rangler" who only last night around the campfire admitted that he frequently gets lost and at one time walked several miles southbound even though he is a northbounder. He admitted that he tried to figure out north/south by looking at the sun but eventually just sat down and waited for another hiker to come along and ask which way was north. Well since Genevieve and I already had had map discussion issues earlier in the morning I just follow along like a puppy. Genevieve is off at a normal pace down the yellow trail and is soon out of site while ol' 1.0 drags along at his enjoy the scenery pace. But it doesn't me long to figure out that the good ol' yellow trail is just a 1.1 mile loop trail around Nuclear Lake! Loop trail. As in go around in circles loop trail. I must say it really is a nice view of the lake. Tough going over boulders and 1.5 hours later I find "Wood Rangler" sitting on the side of the trail...waiting... with Genevieve...they have the map spread out and are studying it. This place somehow looks familiar. Oh yeah - I was here at 11:00 - it is now 3:00. Well there is nothing to do but get up and start following the white blazes. We pass our picnic spot. When we get to the north end of Nuclear Lake once again (2 hours later though) we look harder for the hidden white blazes - about 50 yards up and sure enough there they are and we truck it on in the 2.8 miles to Telephone Pioneer Shelter. Well so to speak - about half way there the trail maintenance guy ran out of white paint again and skipped a few hundred yards. At this time of year the AT is a superhighway in forest terms and easy to spot due to trailwear but in some sections there are side trails that are equally well traveled. So if you don't see a white blaze soon it is time to look around. You can almost go to sleep counting your steps 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 like I do and suddenly there are no white blazes anymore. Not seeing any white blazes forward there is no choice but walk back to the last known white blaze and decide next steps. Hmmm...this has gotta be it. So I go forward like I was going hoping for the best. This is kinda like going around in circles except staying on a straight line. Starting to get dark...I think I see a white blaze but it is just sunlight patch on a tree trunk. With nothing nothing better to do I keep going forward and then with relief spot that familar signpost. All is well. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 there is a very steep downslope into the shelter which I have already mentioned is very painful and slow for me. My right knee with the ACL surgery is swelling up and stiff. My toes jam into my boots. I've had a good strong day but really have had enough at this point. I stumble into camp - and we knew that there was a water issue (no water) at this shelter but no problem because it is a short .7 miles to a house that allows hikers to fill up at their faucet. Right. The trailguide did not mention that the .7 miles is down a 500 foot steep rocky boulder hillside. And of course that means .7 miles back up...with *pounds* of water. Well there really is no option because since we had a longer hike than we thought we are all out of water. "Wood Rangler" is tagging along with us and is good company. Two hours later I have hauled my 6 liters (12#) of water up the hill and get ready for bed without normal camp bath. When we get to the top common sense kicks in and we "discover" that we really didn't need to haul so much water up the hill - we could have just taken up the minimum and then filled up in the morning on the way out since it was, as they say, on the way! Hmmm....but anyway we have more water than we need and give 4 liters to two female late arrivers "Creek Diver" and "Restless" - it is very much appreciated as you can imagine. "Wood Rangler" shares his stovetop stuffing with a can of salmon added. That's pretty good. We share some of our miso soup with him...hadn't had that before. Hard place to camp and the tent is on a slight incline so all night is a series of roll to the bottom of the tent and then climb back up. I must remark about about the expert bear bag technique - throwing the rock tied to the bear bag rope off a *cliff* over a skinny limb from a just the right size tree. The bear bags are expertly suspended 40 feet in the air and 12 feet from the nearest tree trunk. Picture perfect. Received positive comments from Genevieve and other hikers. Oh yeah - the bear bag rope was located in the bottom of 1.0's pack. Lights out.Thanks for reading and the encouragement. Will try to load pics and video tomorrow. Please sign the guest book.1.0 and Bea