Date: 2011-08-12
From: (127) Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: (128) Cooper Brock Falls
Miles today: 28.8

Tridub and I slept in, cause hey, it was cold! The trail was still wet and muddy, but the rain held off. In the morning, after climbing down a boulder covered mountainside, I passed a lone can of coke sitting in the woods. But this was no ordinary can of coke; it was still cold! A needle in a haystack! (I imagined what I felt was similar to that of finding true love, winning the lottery, discovering that my supposed cancer was really only a penny I swallowed when I was six, or hitting a home run in the 9th inning with bases loaded and our team down while Chariots of Fire plays over the loudspeakers and every person in the stadium is on their feet cheering as the wooden bat in my hands explodes into a thousand pieces sending the baseball hurtling into the atmosphere where it burns up like a meteor and is never seen again¢¦ but I digress¢¦). I was about to drink it, but then realized that if I did I would have to carry the extra weight of the metal can for the rest of the wilderness. I weighed my options; the sweet refreshing coke versus my standards as an ultra-light hiker. In the end I drew my line in the sand and decided to leave the coke for Tridub who was not far behind. (It is a decision that I must live with for the rest of my life).In the evening I forded my last river of the trail (After kicking off my shoes and marching straight into the water while a crowd of uncertain section hikers watched in awe). It was very wide, cold¢¦ and wet. I will not miss it.I stopped at a decent view on top of a mountain for lunch, a meal that consisted of pop tarts and instant potatoes. Tridub caught up to me while I was eating and said that he wanted to do 28 miles today instead of 24 so that we could end at a shelter on account of it looking like rain and his tent fly having holes in it from him sliding down a rock face on his butt. I agreed, as I had some extra food to eat anyway, and the additional miles would make me even hungrier. And so, we hiked fast and ended at the planned shelter at 6:40pm after 28.8 miles of hiking (So much for taking it easy the day before a 50 miler!).We shared the shelter with a quiet girl named Amish (I asked and no, she¢s not Amish) and two goofy section hikers who were digging holes in the ground looking for worms and bending safety pins to go fishing with in the nearby brook. They had wood for a fire already collected, and I asked if they would light it so that I could burn my now ruined pair of socks and not have to carry them anymore. Later I went down to the brook to collect some drinking and cooking water, but it was brown and vile looking. Not wanting to risk the smelly stuff, I asked one of the section hikers if I could borrow his filter pump, which I recognized as the same model that I had started in Georgia with before mailing it home, and therefore already knew how to use. He let me borrow it, and so I dropped down on a flat rock by the Brook¢s edge and began pumping. Tridub sat down beside me to wash up, and no sooner had he dipped his legs into the water than he was latched onto by several vicious leeches! He freaked out and accidentally threw one at me, causing me to jump and scream like a girl as it bounced off my lap and back into the water. Regaining my cool, I started poking at the leech with a stick. It was covered in tiny legs and had a long sucker on it that made it look the parasite from the movie Alien (Kill it with FIRE!). It was disgusting, but the section hikers wasted no time in sticking it with a safety pin and using it as bate! (Not so tough anymore are ya?). As I finished pumping the filter, I looked down through the shallow water and saw that the smooth rock was covered in leeches. Gobs of them! I was very happy that only the filter tube had penetrated its depths, and not I. As for Tridub, he kept finding tiny ones all over his legs... but he got over it. That night as my socks burned away in the fire, Tridub and I planned out everything for the morning¢s 50 miler (I was eating a bowl of Ramon noodles, as is my routine before a 50). We decided that no matter what we would end up hiking in the dark, but that it would be easier to do this in the morning while we were rested and alert as opposed to night when we were already 40 some miles in and stumbling on everything. Therefore, we set our alarms for 2:20am, which we felt would give us enough time to finish before nightfall, as well as for a quick breakfast. The 50 miler, according to my guidebook, would take us out of the hundred mile wilderness (Before my three day deadline) and end us at Nesowadnehauk Stream in Baxter state park, roughly 10 miles from the summit of Katahdin and the end of the journey. We would also cross Abol Bridge and a camp store a few miles before our stopping point, where we could buy food for the final day.I was very careful to make sure that we had everything figured out, as my last 50 mile attempt failed miserably in New York after 21 hours traversing 43 miles, the last 18 of which had been without water and in the summer heat. But tomorrow, I knew, I would finish. I had to, I would starve otherwise... It would be my fifth attempt, and if completed, fourth 50 miler of the Appalachian Trail. A veteran of such delights, and Tridub along for the ride, we were ready. It¢s ALL or NOTHING, HERE¢¦WE¢¦GO>>>>