The drug cocktail Bunny forced me to take last night was only partially effective (I might be building a tolerance to arsenic). It did keep me paralyzed to the point that I couldn’t get up to pee, but it wasn’t too strong to keep me knocked out enough to not hear the armadillo rummaging outside of our tent (double negative thrown in to give the grammar police something to do). Nothing could have kept me from hearing the owl battle in the trees above us. I have no idea what got the owls so worked up (possibly Godzilla or Sasquatch, because I swear there were rocks being thrown around). Even Bunny agreed this was more than a raccoon encounter, but she has a very vivid nighttime imagination.
Does anyone think that Michael Jordon can’t still sink a 3? Once you develop a skill to the point of muscle memory, only complete loss of those muscles would result in the loss of that ability. I’m sure faithful readers know where this is headed. Rather than get into the specifics of whether there is enough fiber in my diet, or if I’ve been drinking enough, let’s just suffice it to say “Stella (Easy) got her (his) groove back!” I will be walking with a bit more pep today.
Including the poop delay (oops, TMI) we still managed to get our earliest start to date—9:50. A part of me was afraid to stay in the tent since it was so close to (on) the trail. We are not really in a hurry on this trip, at all. We pre-arranged to have Bunny’s parents drop off food for us tomorrow, but we’re only 6 miles from the drop point. Bunny wanted to go slow today and still meet them tomorrow, as planned, but the trail is not challenging enough to justify taking 28 hours to cover 6 miles. She finally agreed to call them (I’m still not trusted with a phone) and change the pickup to this afternoon.
The LBL may not have much geologically speaking, but it is a temperate paradise for birds. Our wildlife sightings to date include some usual suspects for the area (deer, turtles, frogs, toads, coyotes—no roadrunners, buffalo—enclosed pastures, an armadillo, squirrels, and tons of birds). And let’s not forget the horses. They aren’t wild ones like we saw in Wales or the Greyson Highlands of VA. We had to struggle through a few more miles of destroyed trail today to make it to the Golden Pond Visitor Center to get our food drop.
It was the hottest day of hiking we have encountered so far. It was pretty close to, if not 80, by noon. Our new meeting time was 12:30 which gave us plenty of time to take breaks and cool off. Something different today, we did run across a few day hikers on the trail, but this was to be expected getting near to tourists areas (welcome/visitor centers). We arrived before Bunny’s ps which allowed us to get rid of trash and fill up on water. When they arrived, I went through the food and sent quite a bit back. At the rate we are going, we easily have an extra couple days of food. They stuck around while we ate our lunch.
Part of the concession I had to make to get Bunny to call her parents was to agree to a shorter day today. The next trail camp was only a couple of miles from the visitor center. Once we crossed under 68/80, the trail started dropping off of the ridge toward the Kentucky Lake side of the LBL. I’m already liking the northern half of the trail better than the southern half. This is not a shared use trail with horses but is for hikers and bikers only. There also seems to be a lot more water flowing in the streams. We covered the less than 3 miles to camp in time to have the tent up by 4:30.
Bunny likes to wash off as much as possible in the back country. I do appreciate this since we share a tent. I’m usually too busy fetching water, organizing equipment, cooking, and a million other things that Bunny thinks just magically happen on the trail to have the time to indulge in cleaning rituals. Today, however, with our early stop, I took the opportunity to clean up in the creek before preparing our gourmet supper.
We had some new sauces to try out from a company called Kevin’s Natural Foods (that’s where I got the Korean BBQ sauce last night). Today, I was carrying a Thai Coconut Curry Sauce as well as a 1/2 pound can of chicken. I never thought to check out the can before I started to fix supper. Usually, canned meats come with some sort of opening key or pop-top. Not this chicken! I didn’t have a can opener or a pocket knife. Last year, Bunny carried a spork with a can opener on the handle, but she’s opted for a longer titanium spork this year. I felt like Captain Kirk as I leaved back and yelled at the sky…only “Caaaan!” not “Kahn!”
Bunny said just make supper without the chicken and carry it out. No way I was going to carry an extra 1/2# another 30 miles. I racked my brain trying to remember how to open a can without a can opener. I seemed to recall rubbing it on concrete to wear down the rim. No concrete, but there were a few pieces of relatively flat sandstone around the fire pit. I started rubbing. Bunny said I was wasting my time, she wanted to eat and go to bed (it was barely 5!). This increased my resolve, but to be sure, I begged to be allowed to touch the phone to see if we had signal to YouTube “how to open a can without a can opener.” I confirmed I was right.
In the process, I broke 3 different pieces of sandstone, but I was able to wear through the rim enough that I could fit Bunny’s titanium spork in the can and pry the top off. Even Bunny will agree the result was worth the effort as this was our best trail supper of the last 3 years. Remember, we’re only 3 days out and don’t have hiker hunger where ramen noodles and spam are a delicacy. Thai Curry Coconut chicken with Knorr chicken noodles, hot herbal tea, and Oreos for dessert. We would be willing to make this same meal at home and think it was great. It was so good, Bunny didn’t even try to drug me when she went to bed. Baby steps.
EFG