Date: 2010-08-11
From: Trapper John Shelter

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: scattered clouds

11 August Wednesday ¢ 12.0 miles to Hexacuba shelterWe woke with the idea of getting ice cream at the Ice Cream man¢s house for breakfast. Luckily we didn¢t keep hiking last night to see if he was home because he ain¢t. He¢s nowhere to be found. Unfortunately for us, he still had an ice cream sign by the AT trail taunting passersby. We checked out the register under his front porch hoping that he¢d come out of the house but he never does. There¢s a register with people¢s trail names, ages, and hometowns. We make note of the Buddhist prayer flags and the absence of ice cream at the Ice Cream Man¢s house. There¢s a water spigot and some old ATC magazines here so we¢re pretty sure it¢s cool to hang out here. We find 3 cans of $25 cent sodas in the cooler beside a chair. There¢s 4 guys and 3 cans darn it. The water doesn¢t taste like sulfur so I¢m thankful! I was chomping at the bit to climb Smarts Mtn. I¢m ravenous! Hungry for that fire tower vista awaiting my starving eyes. I could almost taste the White Mountains!Towards the top all I could think about was that security line at the Albany airport. All I could think about was what I was doing with my life now. I could be laying on a couch but something inside me compels me to do this. To suffer for the chance to do something few have done! Did I mention I didn¢t get any ice cream at the Ice Cream Man¢s house? We climbed until I couldn¢t climb anymore and reached the fire tower. Tree was in front but I climbed up to the tower first. I had the forethought to take everything I needed up there the first time and not walk down those steep stairs twice. My food, camera, and water in hand and I shimmy up tight metal stairs to the top of the scaffolding with a roof. Hot Foot crapped his pants trying to fart and had to walk back down the fire stairs to fix his problem. After awhile the novelty of seeing the Whites wore off and I wanted to be closer to them. The Whites Mountains that is!!! Kumquat was there by the shelter. She¢d already been down the obstacle course that is the water trail nearby. Orange water at the puddle you struggled to get to is the winning prize. We hang out at the cabin until I can¢t take another minute of Tree reading stories from an abandoned People Magazine. Soon I realize that I was in fact walking North on the AT. It¢s confusing around that fire tower to say the least.We hit 3.4 miles/per hour coming down off of Smarts Mtn. We were proud. Stretcher was the first to catch me because I left without them. We stopped at South Jacobs Brook for a while. We got water and watched three trail maintainers laboring to build a rock bridge of some form. It was immediately apparent that we crossed the river easily without assistance. They were lassoing a giant boulder with a canvas rope, pulley, and come-along and trying to drag it up a lumber ramp that they¢d fashioned out of small tree¢s they¢d chopped down. Intense bridge building operation going on. It was labeled with caution tape and they had us diverted around a badly eroded construction detour. I wanted a picture of us wearing their safety hats. We also realized that we could rock hop up the river to reach the shelter in less miles. We¢re ethical hikers though so we continue our heading onto the shelter. The trail isn¢t bad coming up Hexacube Mtn. I led up after they finished contaminating North Jacobs brook by taking a bath in the puddles there. Tree even noticed that his arm bracelet sank in the puddle after their group shower. Surface tension of water and greases effects I guess is the most likely cause.There¢s an awesome group of young boys and out of shape old guy chaperones at the shelter before us. We¢re so tired we can¢t keep going so we have to stay with the kiddies tonight. They move around and are very accommodating towards us and we¢re thankful. The group of old men are wondering about some of their missing friends. The other old guy is with his son and they don¢t think they¢re going to make their destination. The missing man and his son arrived shortly before dark with an exhausted old fat black Labrador retriever. The old dog is carrying entirely to much weight. The missing man walks past his dog carrying close to 10 pounds of weight with a heavy sigh and gasping for oxygen. The missing man didn¢t even remove the backpack from the dog so I did it for him. There¢s another dog that¢s been annoying everyone since we got here. The dog¢s name is ¢Jake¢ somebody tells me as it sticks its nose into my Heine-pot full of hot water. Jake, is so thirsty that he¢s willing to drink from my pot while it¢s on fire. I suggest they give the dog some liquids. The dog drinks from it¢s brand new collapsible water bowl as it eyes my bag of food laying on the ground by the shelter.The privy at Hexacuba Shelter is going to get its own paragraph. The privy walls are shaped like a pentagram and there¢s a Chuck Palahniuk quote on the inside walls. Chuck would be proud!The shelter has 6 sides to the Hex shelter. Tonight it¢s packed full into every efficient corner space. I can¢t even count how many kids are around. Most of them are in here, the rest moved outside the shelter to sleep in horrible tent sites to be nice to us. I fall asleep listening to a guide picking on girl scouts. The fat old guide says he had to rescue them because the girl scouts were carrying #10 food cans, wearing blue jeans, and wearing tennis shoes.The kids had a large amount of firewood and I thought they¢d be up all night. I bummed a Benedryl off Kumquat and assured myself a great night sleep.