Date: 2006-07-04
From: Carage motel

To: Galehead Hut
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: broken clouds

Happy Birthday America. Usually on this day each year I, along with my fellow partners in crice, of whom will remain anonymous, would all meet up at a certain place in the neighborhood and light off fireworks till about midnight. But we'd go out huge, usually setting off our biggest and loudest firework we had, or sometimes, setting off one that we made by combining a bunch of different fireworks into one - all good fun. But today I will miss out on that tradition. I'm an avid fan of this nation and it kind of sucks not being able to have a beer, eat some Bar-B-Q, and watching the fireworks display downtown.Instead, I battled with my girlfriend again. We're going through a rough spot in our relationship. So Restless, 2 Shoes, and I stayed at the Carage Motel last night. We woke up early this morning to hit up breakfast. By 6:30am we had done everything and were waiting on our shuttle. The shuttle was late so Restless called him and we think woke the guy up. We think he just forgot about us.So we got dropped off and were hiking by 7:30am. The first uphill was sooooo long. My legs were burning the whole time. And this ain't no nice trail either. Climbing up rocks on standing on unstable ground was the way we travelled. Basically, put 35lbs on your back and then walk up about 5,000 stairs and that's about what our first climb was like. But, to my surprise, we were witnesses to some amazing views. We got about treeline and I was like, wow. I haven't seen anything like it yet. It was clear and you could see far, and exactly what you were about to hike. It was really neat to be on top of a ridge line with absolutely no trees around.So we kept going and made it to the hut, Galehead Hut, by 2:30pm. Talk about being tired. I felt like I did 25 miles but I really only did 13. And, those mountains gave me another bleeder as well.So at the hut I called mom and Keri and just chilled for a bit. I wanted to take a nap but I couldn't find a place, so I decided to journal for a bit. Mango, Poptart, and Ridge Fungi showed up later and that's when the drama started.When Restless and I frest got there I asked for a work for stay and the guy said sure, but Restless wanted to pay $8.00 dollars so he didn't have to do work and just sleep on the floor, and the guy in charge was fine with that. 2 Shoes shows up an hour before Mango, Pop-tart, and Ridge Fungi and claimed the last work for stay. They guy that gave us all the nod wasn't the real guy in charge of the place and turns out he shouldn't of let Restless pay to sleep on the floor, they are only allowed to let two people do that and those are the two work for stays they take in each night. So when the boss showed up he told Mango there was no more work for stays available, and he told Pop-tart and Ridge Fungi that they had to keep hiking - It was 5:30pm and suppose to thunderstorm. He could have let people sleep on the floor. AMC needs to change some things. Mango complained to the guy for about 30 minutes and then ended up shelling out the cash to be a guest at the hut, an $85.00 dollar a night fee. Pop-tart and Ridge Fungi had to go set up a set somewhere about 300 yards away. The boss ended up letting Restless sleep on the floor with 2 shoes and I because the deal was done and he had already paid. I really feel bad for everyone though, this whole situation sucks.eggs x2, english muffin x2, blueberry pancakes x3---pepper jack cheese, peanutbutter---lasanea, bread, cookies, soup