Date: 2007-12-01
From: Partnership shelter

To: Hurricane Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: broken clouds

mi. 19.7 sleep hammockdest. Hurricane Mtn Shelter day 142 Last night I got ahold of Slowhike and him and Patrick are going to meet me tonight. I'm not sure where yet, they are going to let me know sometime today. I'm hoping it is the shorter one, the 2 options are 20 and 25. I ended up setting my alarm. Probibly under 5 times since I started. I wanted to make sure I got an early start in order to meet them at a good time. I was able to get packed up and headed south before 8am. Not too bad. An hour or so in I came across a hunter in the trail. I'm glad today is the last day of rife season. Black powder comes in again next. The hunter was standing on the trail, not walking to where he was going or taking a break. I made a decent amount of noise so he could hear me coming. He was standing with his rife in it's sling on his shoulder. The business end was pointed a good bit behind him. I even said something to the effect that I'm going to sneek behind you I'm always cautious with the business end of those things. He just laughed a little. Seriously though. I'm not going to step where it's pointed at me. I don't now if it's loaded, probibly, or if the saftey is one. What can I say, I'm going to enjoy hiking when the season is over. Today was another great example of getting an early start and being about to get the miles in. I had a spot to make to resupply 15 miles in today. I made it to the road by just after 1pm or so. The terrain wasn't bad at all, the miles seemed to be rolling off. Here the trail didn't cross the road. It crossed a road into the state park. I walked to the main road and stuck out my thumb. Under a minute later the first vehicle by stopped and picked me up. I nice guy out with his son. I had to ride in the back of a truck, but that makes no difference to me. One of those great of beater pickups. I could smell the exhaust along with the wind hitting my face. They dropped me off 2.5 miles down the road at the convience store/resturant. This place also turned out to be a new hostel. A nice looking place, I just had somewhee to head to. I ended up eating a meal there, packing out a sandwich, and resupplying for $26. Not too bad. I will say the selection was very limited. Had I known that I would have packed out anothr dinner out of the last town. I also learned that the southbounder in front of me left 20 minutes before I got there. I should see him and the other guys soon. I got to the shelter right around 4:30. I think my hiking pace is picking up. I seem to be averaging close to 2.5 with breaks. A lot faster than my 1 to 1.5 I started with. Although my breaks are a lot shorter. I got there and saw a couple hammocks. I knew they had to be Slowhike and Patrick. It was nice to see people I knew. I met Slowhike a couple times, this was my first time for meeting Patrick in person. I feel kind of bad. I went to set up my hammock and said something about firewood. They already had some gathered. While I was setting up I could see them gathering a good little bit. By the time was setup, they were done. I felt a little bad for not helping. It took a few extra minutes to setup. I hadn't hung in awhile and had to adjust a few things. We were sitting there talking when John and MissingLink stroll up. I was surprised to see them. They had planned to stop somewhere south of here. It was great to sit up and talk with everyone tonight. I ended up sitting up until after 10 with Slowhike talking. After that I headed to the hammock. After all the firewood gathering we ended up sitting in the shelter and talking instead. I think I figured out why this is called hurricane mountain. It is really freakin windy. Luckily the wind shifted from when I setup. Now it was going right down the hammock. I went to my hammock to find the sock blowing in the wind. Not the way I prefer. Now off to bed.