Date: 2008-01-15
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter

To: Cloud 9 Hostel
Miles today: 11.6

mi. 11.6sleep hosteldest Cloud 9 Hostel day 186 Last night was freaking cold. I definitly did not want to get out of bed. Everyone says not to eat in your sleeping bag, but when the temp is below 10 degrees all of that is out the window. Meat and I both ate from the sleeping bags. That is the only way I could get the body moving and not freeze. Someone doing a 2 month section by the name of Caveman pulled up. He said he woke up in the middle of the night and could not sleep. He decied to hike on. What can I say the people from the great white north are a little strange. We talked to him for a good hour. Appartly he can not go back to Mexico after being deported while kayaking the sea of Cortas. Another awesome person met randomly in the winter on the trail. He said something that surprised me. I mentioned that I could not be out here hiking like they are. I am only oput here to finish up, not starting. Winter hiking is way too hard core for me. He said that he hated to break it to me, but I was just as crazy and have been out here for a good part of winter. I hadn't thought about that. It has been getting cold than warm since PA. I have hiked through Oct, Nov, Dec, and most of Jan. I will say that Feb is the worst winter weather down here. The funny thing is people have told me back home, oh it is GA and the south it won't get cold. It's the freakin mountains, it gets freakin cold. At elevation it gets cold regaurdless. We got to the hostel around 3 or so. This is a really cool place. It is also a trout farm. I asked and was able to catch a fish and eat it. I had never fly fished and wanted to give it a try. Frank the hostel owner was very patient with helping me. I wasn't sure at this point that I wanted to keep the fish. So he cut the barb (the little point on the hook off), not to injure the fish. I had a rough few minutes getting started. Then I finally hooked one. It put up a good fight. At this point Laura his wife, Crutch (a hiker that lives and helps out at the hostel), and Meat came over. Everytime it got close it looked even bigger. I fought this thing for a good ten minutes. Without the barb on the hook I had to be careful and keep constant pressure on the hook. Or it would spit it out and I would lose it. This made it a little harder and funner. I finally got it over to where he could net it. It was huge. He put it on the scale and it was 8lbs 4 oz. A huge tropy trout. No way I was pashing this up. Meat and I decided to split it for the meat. It is the largest fish caught all this or last year. It is the second largest fish caught by a hiker. The largest is a crazy 14+ lbs. Frank fliehed it in record time. The steaks were huge. He said it was the largest fish they ever cooked. Most people mount them. Can't say I want a fish on my wall. He smoked it for us. He said the 2 pieces f!illed his smoker. We ate half of it and were full with a little extra food. It was some of the best fish I have ever had. Back home I would eat freshly caught fish, but nothing this good. Part of it was this was the first time I had it smoked. Definitly worth the stay. The rest of the night was spent chatting it up and sipping on some beverages. What can I say it's a hard life here. Oh and the local grocery store has my favorite beer there. They actually had Strongbow. If you have never tried it, definitly do. It is only the best beer ever made.