Date: 2005-04-14
From: Kincora Hiker Hostel

To: Kincora Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Miles hiked today : 0.0I woke up this morning at 7:30 a.m. during the hustle and bustle of everybody getting packed for the day. I went downstairs and ate my yogurt and drank the rest of my orange juice before sending e-mail from my pocketmail. Afterwards, I replied to my new e-mail, as well as some older e-mails I hadn't previously had time for.After e-mail, I cooked a lunch of powdered scrambled eggs with tuna fish. Word to the wise, stay away from the powdered scrambled egg meals that can be found at the local outfitter. They taste okay, but wreak havoc on your body.I made some phone calls and around noon, I washed the pound of grapes I'd purchased yesterday and set about eating them. At 1:00 p.m., I was trying to figure out whether I had time for a nap before heading out to the trail, when Caroline, a hiker I'd met in Erwin, arrived and said the group arriving today was planning a hiker arranged potluck here at Kincora tonight. After a short while, I decided that I was going to stick around another night. If not for the food, then for my knee. And if not for my knee, then just because I really wanted a day off.So today is what is known as a "zero day." A day where you do nothing but relax, eat, read, eat, sleep, eat, rest, and eat. No hiking. After being on the trail for a calendar month and covering more than 400 miles, I really enjoyed taking today off and am psyched to head out tomorrow and do a long day.I sat by the woodstove much of the afternoon reading the first half of Yogi's PCT handbook, then helped with dinner preparation. Just when we were about to get the grill going, Bob came in to tell us that there had been a rattlesnake bite victim at the gorge near Laurel Falls, just North of where I stopped hiking yesterday. A pair of female hikers came across the victim and his friends and called 911 before continuing onto the next shelter. Bob asked for volunteers to go to help carry out the victim and soon had a group of 11 hikers.I stayed behind while the search party was out and about and saw Pat headed to the horse pasture. I tagged along and was introduced to her horses, Quita (as in Chiquita), a 15 year old Arabian female, and Hopi, a 12 year (I don't know the breed) brown male. The horses had been walking around with what looked like blindfolds, though I found out that they were simply screens to keep the flies out of their eyes and barely restricted their vision.The search party returned after a couple hours and had run over 5 miles of AT and side trail without finding the snakebite victim. EMTs and police were on the scene and upon arriving on the scene, somebody had seen 3 teenagers hurriedly running out of the woods. They'd written down the license plate of the vehicle the teenagers left in and when the police ran the plate, it came up as belonging to a stolen vehicle. So there was speculation that one of the victims was among the 3 teenagers and that they may have realized they may face legal trouble when help arrived.We continued with dinner. There were mashed potatoes, sauteed squash/onions/zucchini, salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, bread, grilled hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken, with cake and ice cream for dessert. Once again, I am incredibly stuffed. After listening to more of Bob's stories, I am off to bed.Bedtime at 10:15 p.m.