Date: 2007-08-08
From: Main Street House

To: Hall Mountain Lean-To
Miles today: 4.1

mi. 4.1dest. Hall Mountain Lean-tosleep. hammock day 27 I woke up my usual early. I was sharing a bunk room with the other southbounder Chris. I sit around for a little while and convinced Chris to join me at the diner across the street. Hoosier in Stratton told me about it. They had huge pancakes. I got 3 for $2.50. I only made it through half of it. A couple northbounders joined us and failed as well. We came to the conclusion that pancakes were more like cakes and serup is like frosting for them. Something you had to be there for. Later one Jason, Clay, and Karl joined the group. They ordered other things but where able to finish. The woman working there cracked us up. She gave everyone grief for not finishing their food. She reminded us of all of the hiker girls who were able to finish. I forgot to mention that it was raining off and one. I checked the weather and tomorrow lookes good, but it looks like rain farther on. Luckily later on I talked with other people that checked the weather and they said it looked good. I'm still hesitant, but I'm moving on regaurdless. I rehit the post office today. In my rush to send my gear home I forgot my gaiters. I did weigh them there and they are 10 oz. My compass is about 2oz, and my smartwool is heavier than my polypro I picked up. I also added a poweraid bottle to replace my nalgene canteen, which has to save a little. But my crocs are about 11oz a shade heavier than my flip flops I was carrying. All in all about a pound lighter. I did keep my hydration tube. I am going to hit up the outfitters in my next town of gorhem and see if they have one. If not I have mailing it back home. Ok, Mom don't take offense but I have to write about my mail drop. I asked for 4 meals by name and 5 days worth of snacks. One of those meals being my dehydrated sloopy joes. What I got was 2 things of ramin, 2 liptons, 2 mac and chz's, 3 bags of slooppy joes, and 1 bag of taco meat. In addition to way too much gorp. I did add 3 king sized snickers in addition though. I also got a gaint sized toothpaste instead of a trail. And about 2 cups of mash potates and 2 cups of stuffing. And enough coffee to last over a month, and enough drink mixes for 2 a day for this section. Of that I refilled my travel toothpaste and gave the rest to the other guys to do the same. I also gave them the 2 ramins, 3/4 of the stuffing and mash potatoes. I sent the huge rope back, I think dad can use it to tie up the boat. I did carry out all the meat. I added it to my mac and chz tonight which turned out really well.   I'll have to addmit I carryed out the rest. My pack felt crazy heavy today. Add to that the 1 mountain up and over and the 1 up in my 4.5 miles of hiking. The pack felt heavy for sure. We left the hostel around 11:30am. The other guys are not into early starts and none of us were feeling the rain. The only bad part about this hostel is that there is no shuttle to the trail. We should have hitched and offered a few bucks to take us to the trailhead. We ended up going over to the other hostel the pine elis. He charged us $12 for the 9 mile ride. We split it so it wasn't too bad. The shady thing is that he charges people staying there too. Something a little wrong about that. On the ride there it started to rain again. He also turned on the radio and all of us were singing to the song. Quietly but loud enough. The driver commented that 90% of the people sing when he turns it on. I can see that. I sing a lot when I hike. I sit there and enjoyed the last few minutes duringthe ride of being warm and dry. When we got there we jumped out and yep, still raining. I put on my rain jacket and headed out. As usual the other 3 guys took off ahead. I enjoyed the time alone though. I am really getting my stride. Did I mention that my pack felt really heavy today. I am carrying more food weight than when I went ito the wilderness. Did I also emtion I was hiking with my rain jacket. I slowly realized that I was soaking with sweat and it was not raining too bad. So I hiked without the rain jacket in my synthic shirt. Much better. The shirt works great in the rain. I took a break at the valley inbwteen the mountains. I crossed the little stream and saw the frnch group there. I passed a couple of them earilier. I was hoping they moved on. But I heard from Chris they camped by the river next to the road where I got off. I did ring out my shirt there. It wasn't dry, but felt a lot better. Way better than the smartwool I have been using. The last up was only a little over a mile. But man it felt like it went on forever. I finally rolled into the shelter around 1pm. I came across the other 3 there. They decided that was far enough. This was always my plan. I had hiked long enough in the rain for one day. Funny thing is that I try not to complain about how heavy my pack feels around them. I think theirs are way hevier than mine. Jason packed up 15 beers to the shelter. His pack had to be topping 50 lbs, the others are not far behind. I'm cutting tonight short. It's getting late and cold out. Probibly 50 or colder out. The wind is really picking up. No rain though. There were a couple good showers after I got setup. Gear note. On the way into town yesterday I noticed my nalgene canteen leaking. It looked like the sides were delaminating. Sometimes I sat on my pack for breaks. That might have put extra stress on it. Still though. Not even a month of use. My $2 gatoraid bottle that came prefilled is still going strong. It probibly only saw 60% of the use, but still gets used daily. I replaces it with a $2 prefilled liter of poweraid. It was only annolying since I was going into town. It could have caused some more issues if it didn't start until today. I could have riged up something. I am think I may have been able to melt the sides and seal it. Gear note 2. If you use your jetboil on a white gas stove or alcohol stove, remove the cozt first. I didn't nd used it on a white gas stove the over day. I didn't realize until today, but it also melted away 60% of where the handle attaches to the cozy. The handle is jut a nylon strap. I did a little hand sewing job and now everything is fine. Note 3. That had me thinking about what I am carrying. Of everything in my pack. I havenkt used my hypothermia kit {but could have easily needed the other day}, gase bandages, sunglasses, and only used my lighter a couple times. Everything else gets used. I just added tweezers though, and just know used the sewing kit. The sunglasses are my backups in case my glasses break, so they stay. All in all not too bad.