Date: 2018-06-23
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Miles today: 0.0

Sat Day 132 6/23We got a late start out at 5:30. We are pretty light on food. I had a pumpkin muffin and an apple for breakfast. I had three bars to get me to a resupply today. We immediately started a climb up Mount Cube. We're going from 1400 feet 2280ft. On the way up a woman, Shobat caught up to us. She asked if somebody had lost a knife. As it turned out, Ibex had lost her knife. Shobat was nice enough to have picked it up, caught up, and returned it to her. That's how the trail works. She had stayed at the shelter the night before. There were four other people at the shelter. They were all new to her and she didn't remember their names. I was able to identify the people she stayed with. She had stayed with Charley Horse, Cody Coyote and two others that I knew. She talked about how Cody had a roaring fire going within it seemed like 2 or 3 minutes of arriving at the shelter. That's Cody's trademark. Some people on the trail like, Gumby call him the Fire Whisperer. I seen Kody build that fire in the first couple minutes more than once. He doesn't really say anything or greet anybody. He goes about his business and gets his fire going first. Then he'll say hello. Cody likes that name Fire Whisper. The climb up to the mountain was fairly steep and she moved on. I am definitely moving slower these days. The key seems to be to just keep moving. It's not how fast you make the miles it is that you make the miles. We could hear voices in the distance and I recognized Joe Kool and Dom. It took us awhile to catch up. It seems Joe Kool had just pulled a deer tick out of his leg that morning. He's had three deer ticks on him in the first 2 days in New Hampshire. Joe Kool doesn't believe in long pants, permethrin or many other tick prevention methods. He does use 100% DEET as a bug repellent. We talked for a while about the deer tick situation. I've been treated three times in my life for deer tick bites. Regular ticks I can feel on me immediately. Deer ticks seem to escape my attention. That's why I wear long pants no matter how hot it is. That is why I also spray everything with permethrin. I sprayed my pack, tent, and everything else until they are soaking wet with chemical. So we get to the top of Cube Mountain. They're beautiful views in every direction. We hike down to Bracket Brook which is the last water source for 9 miles. We camel up and take a half a liter for the nine mile journey. It is much cooler today and looking like rain. We come across Joe Kool and Dom again. Dom tells us about Carl The Omelette man. Word on the trail is Carl The Omelette man set up camp up ahead before Mount Moosilauke. It seems, Carl The Omelette man makes omelets from 9 to 5 everyday now that he's set up this year. Yesterday was his first day. What with 2 bars left to go 9 miles that would be good news if we could come across Carl. When we come to the gravel road Cape Moonshine Road who do we find but Carl The Omelette man. Carl is set up under a tarp structure. It's probably 30 feet by 10 feet. Carl has homemade chocolate peanut butter gooey fudge cookies. They're so calorically rich just smelling them adds calories to your diet. He has a variety of drinks. He has a charging station for your electronics. He has pastries. AND he makes Incredible, not to be duplicated, or matched anywhere, phenomenal omelettes. He'll put five to eight eggs in with a mess of red onions, green peppers, and I don't know what other vegetables, and then he slices in a whole bunch of cooked Virginia ham. Once that's all cooking, he literally takes 15 seconds pouring on the shredded cheese until it's for 5 inch in the cast iron skillet like a erupting volcano. He cooks it all up, piles it up on a paper plate that barely holds it. Then he serves it. His record was somebody eating 30 eggs. I am definitely not trying to break anybody's omelette record today. I do thoroughly enjoy eating my omelette avoiding the Virginia ham. There's Charley Horse, Cody Coyote, a southbound hiker, and a fella from Boiling Springs who thinks he knows Rickless Morty from Boiling Springs there when we arrive. The hiker who found Ibex knife, Shobat is also there. I text Dom Carl The Omelette man's location. Soon enough Joe Kool and Dom show up. So Carl is feeding 8 hikers an enormous amount of food. All this without any mention, question, or idea of money in the picture. Carl's been doing this for 4 years. This was the latest he's ever started. So I eat and we move on. I'm still getting very tired. Yesterday did seem to be a much harder day. I'm glad for that. If yesterday had been the easier of the two days I wouldn't have made our goal of 16 miles today. It seems like we're hiking up Mount Mist forever which is our last climb before Moosilauke. We're going from 900 feet to 2200ft. They say we're in for a big storm around four. After mountain Mist on the way down we bumped into Squeeze. We haven't seen Squeeze since Dalton. Sweets was debating whether to ride out the storm at the hostel at New Hampshire 24 or go on. We had wanted to do Mount moosilauke e tomorrow. We were so beat we just couldn't even begin to think about that. So I used to work in New Hampshire and she called an old supervisor. He picked us up and we went to his place.