Since it was decided that we only had to hike less than 3 miles to hike today, we peacefully slept in. Not even a Bear was stirring before 8. I opened the door to find laundry waiting on the chair outside the door—it wasn’t our laundry, but clean clothes are a valuable commodity in the hiker community. I looked around and saw similar piles in front of other rooms. I searched until I found ours. I took mine and Bunny’s clothes out and then placed the rest in front of Bear and Sassy’s room. Bear came out and was amazed that they had successfully separated our laundry even down to our underwear. They provide a thorough screening at check in here!
We had breakfast on the veranda, or maybe it was a picnic table outside of our room. We made plans for the day which included a town lunch and another shopping trip. Bear had checked with Mike last night about staying late and getting rides around town. While Mike wouldn’t give us a ride, he would loan us 4 bicycles so we could get around on our own.
With borrowed bikes, we peddled into town for lunch at Black Mountain Burger Co. After lunch, we visited the outfitter and picked up an emergency meal and therm-a-rest seats so we could be more like Bear and Sassy (we are slowly morphing our gear to match each other. By the end of the AT, we should be able to grab any of our packs at random and not be able to tell the difference). We were obligated to make one final stop as agreed to in our ATC trail permit—the local ice cream shop. I reluctantly agreed. I say reluctantly because we had been to this same shop a few days ago when we were staying at Hikers Welcome; I knew they didn’t have banana splits. They didn’t even have Ben and Jerry’s. What kind of barbaric town is Lincoln?
We got back to the motel about 1:30 after having used a completely different set of muscles to peddle bikes than we have been using to hike for the last 6 1/2 months. Mike dropped us off at the same parking lot he had picked us up at yesterday. We were trying to hike by 2:15 but our legs and lower bodies were so confused by the 10 mile bike ride that we looked like cowboys walking after a long ride—not pretty, not graceful, and definitely not fast.
To our relief, the hike started out easy, but it would quickly grow steep. We stopped to camel up at a stream right before the steep climb started. After the stream, Bear and Sassy quickly ditched us. Maybe not quickly, but they were hobbling much faster than Bunny and I could manage. Bear has done some mini triathlons in the past (or at least trained for them until he, inevitably, injured himself), so he was aware of the transition from cycling to running. We’re not running, but the effect is the same.
With Bear and Sassy out of sight, we were able to unashamedly take our time. Until we encounter something worse, we will continue to use the climb up Kinsman as the worst climb on the AT. This climb was relentless, but it was no Kinsman. Not one time did we have to stow our walking sticks to grab rocks and pull ourselves up. Of the 2.6 miles, 2.2 miles were a grind ever upwards.
We got to the caretaker’s side trail where I dropped my pack. I went back to his tent, but he wasn’t there. We continued on to the campsite where Bear and Sassy already had a platform for us and were talking to the caretaker. It was only 5:30 when we checked in. We bought AMC camping passes (maybe this is why the schmucks at Lonesome Lake Hut treated us like dirt, because we didn’t have the orange good guy thru-hiker passes. It was all just a misunderstanding. Once they know we are paying customers they won’t treat us like whale shit).
The caretaker clearly and enthusiastically loved his job. One of his responsibilities is taking care of the privy and it’s contents. This involves spreading it out, drying it, and mixing it into the forest layers—a true labor of love. So much of his job revolves around the privy that he got a tattoo of the privy on his arm…no shit, just the door and the half moon breathing hole. He’s going to have a fun time explaining that one to a future girlfriend.
Bear and I had purchased cup hooks when we were at Hikers Welcome Hostel. We knew that we would eventually have to set up tents on a platform in the Whites. This was our first time so it took us a bit longer than usual. Our Z-Packs tent is not freestanding while Bear and Sassy’s piece of crap Big Agnes tent is semi-freestanding. BA might make decent tents, I can’t say for certain since I have never purchased or will ever purchase one. I can say that their sleep systems do not live up to their ratings and their customer service managers tend to lie. Also, I have a long memory of people and companies that screw me and lie to me. Enough said for this go-round of my rant.
We cooked beside platform and watched a mouse get all of our crumbs. I may even have dropped a few extra just to watch him waddle out from under the platform. He could have easily passed for a dwarf rat. While we were cleaning up, Slippy showed up and ended up on the platform next to us. He didn’t see us but we heard him talking to the guy he was sharing the platform with. He said he had met some people that have been hiking since February. He has only been out 4 months and is getting tired of it, he couldn’t imagine being out 6 1/2 months and still having more than a month to go.
I ran the food bags up to the bear box. When I got back, Bear had checked the forecast and the chance of rain had risen from 0% to 55% by 2a. We were going to get rained on for sure tonight. I’ve learned that whatever percentage of rain equates to 100% for x percentage of time. For us tonight, that means we will have about 3 hours of rain between 2 and 8 in the morning. I’ve about go5 this weather thing figured out.
EFG