Date: 2007-08-01
From: Eliza Brook Shelter NH

To: Lonesome Lake Shelter NH
Miles today: 5.9

I went up South Kinsman - the whole time thinking 'I am so glad I'm not doing this as a down hill' - very steep. If I thought about how precarious it was, I got scared so I tried not to think about it. The weather was good and the top had amazing views. After I got to the summit, these three 50-ish guys summitted and one was doing big woo-hoo's with his sticks raised. I think he got a little adrenaline summit rush. They asked me if I was thru-hiking, and when I said I was coming from Harper's Ferry, Mr. Woo-hoo said "We're thru-hikers. We came from Georgia. We're the real deal. We're the cream of the crop." I didn't want to kill his buzz by saying 'I saw the cream of the NOBO crop pass me, and they're done already'. I said to them that from Harper's Ferry to the Whites has been kind of blah, but the Whites have been really spectacular, and one of them said - "yeah, we were just saying - why did we bother to do the rest? We should have just started here".I got to Lonesome Lake hut at 4:15pm - Skiman and Catch Up had to meet Catch Up's husband Cargomaster for a food drop there and got there at 10:45! My knees are really hurting and starting to really slow me down. I asked if they had work-for-stay, and although they had 2 already (Jack and Cat), they let me do it. As I was eating some potato-dill soup, a SOBO came in and wanted work-for-stay since he knew Cat. The croo members (don't know why they spell crew that goofy way) were debating it and he had a little tirade about the AMC and the hut system and stormed off. So my job was sifting the food compost which took me less than an hour. I talked to Jack and Cat who were on the dock of Lonesome Lake - they had just gone swimming. They had stayed at several huts and kind of oriented me. The work-for-stays have to wait until the guests are done eating and can eat what is left. One hut they were at there were no leftovers so they got plain pasta for dinner. But we got tomato veggie soup, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatos, salad, corn, and brownies. I stuffed myself.The work-for-stays sleep on the dining room tables so I had to wait until lights-out (9:30pm) to go to sleep - not used to staying up that late. There are bathrooms with running water but no showers and you aren't supposed to sponge bathe. The privies are this special kind that you can pee AND poop in instead of the self-composting ones you can only poop in. I was brushing my teeth and a mom was in the bathroom with her 2 daughters. One of the girls was in the toilet and sang this great song that I wish I remembered the words to -all I can remember is:      I pee down the dark hole      It goes really far in the earth      I pee down the dark holeThe mom eventually told the daughter that I was there and the daughter was mortified 'why didn't you tell me before. I feel so foolish.'Finally it was 9:30 and the croo announced that the guests could stay but the lights would be turned off. So I hopped into my sleeping bag on the table. There was a group of guys who stayed with their headlamps on - it seems that they were reading the dictionary to each other. I drowned them out with my mp3 player.