Date: 2009-07-28
From: Greenwall Shelter - Trail Mile 513.1

To: Swan Song Shelter - Trail Mile 499.3
Miles today: 13.8

Day 38[Watson & Holmes report their arrival at 43° 33' 26.3" N 72° 51' 30.8" W, "The Secret Shelter". (This is an unlisted shelter.)Her journal entry:]Swan Song Shelter a.k.a. The Secret ShelterWe're all looking forward to 5-egg omelettes for breakfast at Whistlestop Diner, but realize at 8 miles it will be more like lunch. Stats hangs back to continue our chat, as I'm the last to finish packing up. I eat my hot cream of wheat squeezed out of the ziploc freezer bag (working great, thanks, Dad!) as we walk.We pass by some interesting piles of rock cairns. Some boy scouts (or bored physics students?) had too much time on their hands. Pretty cool, though. Also really pretty are the stands of pine trees we walk under. I love that smell, and the feel of tall, strong trees towering overhead, while at ground level the forest floor is clear or brush and carpeted in soft dried pine needles. Very nice!We catch up to L&H, M, and Comb at the next shelter for a bit of mid-morning snack, where we meet _?_Wrench_?_ (sorry, I can't remember your full name!), a fun section hiker who treats us to Almond M&M's. Yummy!!A couple miles and nice ridgewalk later and we're at Clarendon Gorge. BEAUTIFUL and perfect for swimming. We'll be coming back after our omelettes for an afternoon break. Watson & Halifax won't hike well in the afternoon heat, anyway.As we cross the suspension bridge over the gorge, S bounces it like a carnival funhouse ride. I enjoy, and am glad H isn't bothered by the shakiness. I guess the fenced sides make it easier for him.Whistle Stop diner is great. They let the dogs onto the porch where the outdoor tables are so they can lay in the shade. The omelettes are everything we'd hoped, and the home fries are oven baked with just the right amount of paprika (a lot!). I had mushroom-onion-sausage-swiss. My new favorite! Follow that up with a root beer float using black raspberry ice cream (surprisingly good!) and you've got one very happy hiker. Tord heads to the gas station convenience store to resupply and picks up 30 ft of duct tape for me (now securely wrapped around the top sections of my trekking poles). I fully expect to use it all!Then Mississippi heads to the store to resupply and catches up with us at the Gorge. He's brought a case of Bud. The swimming is great, though getting H down the steep slope to the beach area is a challenge - thanks, Comb, for the help!Not too much later, Lefthanded (AT'08) shows up with a bottle of Glenlivet single malt and proclaims it's National Scotch Day. Who are we to disagree? So we partake. Or rather, I partake and H looks on.It's getting towards 5pm and the impromptu party (Baltimore Andy and Manimal also show up), shows little sign of stopping, but I've planned five more miles, so I head out. Very soon I realize I'm a little tipsy for hiking. Luckily there's a shelter 1 mile away, so we stop in to eat, drink some water, and hopefully sober up! Comb is there with the same plan.We head out around 6:15 with instructions from caretaker _?_ about finding the Secret Shelter. Don't get in til after 9 pm, but again night-hiking with H is pretty easy. Along the way we see the Mad Hatter's Tea Party: a plastic lawn chair and cooler of cokes with a sign proclaiming 500 miles left to Katahdin. Sweet! I take one for later at the shelter, though I'm more inclined to celebrate my halfway mark at 448.8 miles to Katahdin - somewhere around Hanover, NH - and press on. We catch up to Comb at an intersection a mile short of the shelter, and again the topo maps I've spent so much time downloading come in handy!! Soon we're there and quickly asleep.43° 33' 26.3" N 72° 51' 30.8" W, 1781 ftFor HarveysMom by Harvey's GrandPop