Date: 2009-02-28
From: Neels Gap

To: Hogpen Gap
Miles today: 6.3
Weather: light rain

Today was slightly different in that I am hiking South from Hogpen Gap back to Neels Gap so I can have a Pack review by the good people at Mt. Crossing. They couldn't look at my gear yesterday due to time constrains on my part.It was 48 degrees when I started, overcast and raining. It rained for the first 3 hours and then just dripped off the trees the rest of the way. I passed two sisters from Chicago and two guys from the University of Colorado, all Northbound through hikers.I had been slack packing the past few days but had my full pack of 36 pounds today for the gear review. Big difference with the extra weight. Still averaged 2 miles per hour but was more sore at the end. Developing a pain in my knees, especially my left knee.Old news for a lot of you but for the people new to site, slackpacking is a way to hike with just a day pack. Less weight equals more comfortable hiking. Someone drops you off at the trailhead, in this case the great folks at the Hiker Hostel, and pick you up at a different location. I elected to slack pack the first few days to try and ease my body into the rigors of the trail. I'm hoping I will be in less pain during the beginning stages. The down side is I'm delaying the pains of the full pack until later.I actually did fairly well at the gear review. The biggest problem occured because I was trying to go lightweight and in the process bought a pack a little to light for my hike. They thought the Six Moons Design Starlite was a great pack but not until this summer when I lose the weight of my winter gear. Since I was experiencing pain in my hips and knees, I decided to take the financial hit and bought an Ospery Aether pack. It has a frame that I think will help take the load off my butt and shoulders and put it more onto my hips. After that, they were pretty happy with my gear selection and the amount of gear I was carrying. Only took out about 2 pounds compared to the 10 or more pounds they typically recommend you send home. A couple items of clothing and a towel. After that it was using more zip lock bags and less other bags and consolidating all my prescription and vitamin pills into one bag instead of all in different bags. While at Mountain Crossings I had my first experience with trail magic. Trail magic is an unexpected bit of good fortune on the trail due to the generosity of somebody else. In this case the local Boy Scouts had set up a cook station and were serving steaming hot bowls of red chili in the through way of the building. It was great to get something hot in me after hiking through the rain and cold. This covered opening between the two buildings is the only place on the trail that actually goes through a building. Anyway, thanks for the great chile guys. Again today I saw no wildlife. I consider myself a fairly quiet hiker. Nothing rattles in or on my pack. I'm hiking alone so am not talking. Pretty quiet except for the wheezing, huffing, and puffing going uphill. With all the rain, stepping on dry twigs is not much of a problem either. Still, I'm confused about not seeing any animals.See you on the trail.John