Date: 2013-07-10
From: Stealth Camp before Jo-Mary Road

To: Stealth Camp at White Brook Trail Intersection
Miles today: 20.0

Day 4, July 10th. Stealth site before jo-Mary road to stealth site at white brook trail intersection.Finally a less buggy day!After an earlier start that had me on the trail by 6 40 the mornings hike was quiet and uneventful. Woody had a head start so most of the morning hike was a quiet solo affair. I even got to stop and use the privy at one of the shelters and what a wonderful privy it was! Very clean, and fully screened in from the mosquitos. A+, would deuce again.Eventually the trail started uphill and we climbed little Boardman mountain. It was a pretty easy climb, but the best part was the combination of the altitude, wind, and damp clouds meant we could take the bug netting off. it was glorious to be unencumbered by the annoying suits, I felt the cool breeze as the trail flew past. Alas all good things must end and the trail dropped back down into another bog and the netting went on for the hottest part of the day.As we chugged along we started the big climb of the 100 mile wilderness up to whitecap mountain. It was steep, as we gained a full 2000 feet in 3 miles. Luckily more altitude = less mosquitos so the bug netting came off again. The last good water source for the next 9 miles was at the base of our climb so we took a nice hour long break there to camel up for the night.The top of the mountain was awesome, with a strong 30 mph wind blowing clouds and drizzle at us as we crept above the treeline. I can't wait for more summits like that in the white as well as other mountains after the trail. Even with zero visibility it was totally worth it. Just raw nature in which we were just visitors.after that it was time to find a hang site, which proved quite the challenge in the densely packed coniferous forest. Eventually we found a small open patch by where the white brook trail intersects the AT and hung there.The wind has been howling pretty good as we're still up near the ridgeline of the mountain, and while its certainly moist it isn't raining. Woody thinks it will dry up into a clear breeze so our stuff will dry out, but I'm less optimistic. It'll be another morning of putting on damp clothes, though I do think I'll treat myself to some dry socks. Its the little things that keep us going. While hanging up woody gave my some paracord so I can tie my tarp up separately rather than having to attach it to the hammock as its normally set up. Huge upgrade there. He also taught me a useful knot that I hope I don't forget because it makes adjusting stake tie outs and tarp tie outs super easy to adjust. To top it all off he cooked me up a spare mountain house meal (spaghetti with meat sauce) and the warm meal was appreciated given the cold wet windy mountain air. It even made me want to (hog and crank, stop reading here) pick up a stove for myself. I figure I'll have to do it eventually as I look to winter hike, mise well do it now. Well, atleast its something to think about.Other random things from the day, one shelter we passed had some crappy hikers. I saw it was full and mentioned that there were another 2 hikers behind us coming up the mountain who might want shelter from the windy wetness and one of them said "well there's already six of us and its a six person shelter." bullshit, you always make room for a fellow hiker if its raining out. I told them how we fit 25 people and 2 dogs into the 16 person partnership shelter during a rainy night and left it at that. hopefully they decided not to be jerks and cozy up to make some room. On a much better note, woody saw a moose this morning! Super jealous. Maybe tomorrow will be my day.since we pulled into camp at 5pm, even after much hammock and tarp fiddling there was plenty of time to chat more with woody about winter hiking and different kind of stoves and hammock stuff. One thing I'm sure of is that I want a better tarp than the crappy stretchy small nylon one I have now. Silnylon hex or rectangle. now that I think about it I'm pretty sure I wrote about this yesterday. Also going back to yesterdays writings, I want the stove to be 700ml rather than a full liter and the quilt to be 20 degrees rather than 10, since wearing a puffy and full set of thermals will keep me plenty toasty enough.Last thoughts for the day, another disappointing ford that was actually just another rock hop, though tomorrow is supposed to have a legit ford so I'm looking forward (ha) to that. Tomorrows hike is looking like a long and dry one, mostly at higher elevations. 26 miles tomorrow means an easy 15 into monson Friday, which means plenty of time to take care if business and town chores. The big dry stretches are at the start and late middle, with 5 miles from our hang site from the 1st water source of the day (though we both have plenty of water to make it) then the last 14 or so miles of the day tomorrow are without good water sources. I'll just have to camel up, ration my 2 liters, and try not to sweat and I'll be just fine.Well somehow it is dark enough now to sleep at 8pm (thick cloud cover or something) so I'm gonna catch some zzzs. maybe I'll get 9.5 full hours of sleep! Baller.