Saturday, 7/18
AT Miles = 10.0 / 1502.7
Other Miles = 0.4 / 51.6
Total Miles = 10.4 / 1544.3
It rained last night. A lot. Again. Pretty much as soon as I got all my stuff hung out to dry, the clouds rolled in and the first of several storms came through.
I was up and out early this morning. There were too many mosquitoes to stand around eating breakfast, so I took off at 6:15 and ate breakfast when I got to the summit of Bear Mountain, where there was a bit of a breeze and therefore fewer mosquitoes.
Today presented a bit of a dilemma. I could either hike 10 miles, or 25 miles, but nothing in between. In between is a big low lying swampy area full of mosquitoes, so guerilla camping in there was out of the question.
I was thinking I was going to do the 25 miles, but I forgot how tough the three mountains — Bear, Race, and Everett — are. And with all the rain, all the rocks were wet and super slippery. So, it was 10 miles for the day.
By late morning the clouds were finally being burned off and the sun was breaking through. I stopped on the summit of Everett and just hung out in the sunshine for a while, chatting with a group of Boy Scouts from Rhode Island out for a weekend backpacking trip. While I was there Early Bear and Little Dipper showed up and we chatted a bit.
When I left Everett, since I was almost at the days destination, I took a small detour to Guilder Pond to swim. Early Bear and Little Dipper were there as well, as also were a few locals. There was a big rock ledge that sloped down into the water, and after taking a quick swim I lazed about in the sun long enough to get a bit of a sunburn on the back of my neck.
It is now a bit after 4:00 and I have set up camp, washed myself and my socks, and hung everything out on a line to get rid of some of the dankness. The Boy Scouts are here as well tonight and I look forward to some nice conversation.
Tomorrow I have a 19 mile day planned, so hopefully I will start getting in some miles again.
Oh, I passed the 1500 mile mark today. Only 675 miles left; a cake walk!
—
"Home is where I hang my food bag"
Monkeywrench
Allen Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com
