Monday, April 16, 2012

4.14.12 - Our First Bear Sighting, 400 Mile Mark, and a Big Mile Day

A lot of uphill in the morning and first half of the day, up and over more balds. We did make some killer time and had about 9 miles knocked out by noon! Today was shaping up to be a big mile day. Tarzan's shin is bothering him pretty good, and Flosser's knee isn't doing that well either, but they're still hiking.

Crossed a major road at lunch time, but no trail magic. Bummer! While we were sitting beside the road and some other vehicles, it started to smell bad as the wind blew from behind me. I know it's been about 5 days since I've showered but I thought there was no way I could smell that bad. Could I??? Tarzan looked behind me down the hill and saw a dead bear laying on the side of the hill. Nasty. We could see tons of flys swarming it. Time to move and eat lunch somewhere a little further away.

Hiked a while longer and came to a baptist church where a group of hikers was sitting outside resting. No trail magic, but a spigot with fresh water. I have a huge craving for a beer too, but that will have to wait and water will have to do for now.

Got back to hiking and came across a beautiful waterfall just off the trail.

Back to the trail after that short break, and hiked for what seemed like forever. The uphills were wearing me out and I was getting really hungry. Pushed through and made it to --------- Shelter, reaching the 400 mile mark on our journey! Tons of people stopped in but the pushed on. We did the same, as we wanted to reduce our mileage tomorrow to get into Kinkora where we plan to stay at the hostel and then meet up with Tarzan's father in law, Rod, to hike with us for a few days. Before we pushed on from the shelter I had to eat something. While I was making my ramen, I finished the rest of some jelly beans, ate two pop tarts, then ate the ramen. We hiked 3.6 miles further and decided to hike into a hostel that we didn't even know about, but heard Indiana and Rook talking about. 0.2 miles off the trail and we were greeted by an odd hostel owner and free Cokes. Nice! Tarzan and I didn't feel like spending money to stay when camping is free, so I bought a box of Mac and Cheese for $0.75, and we got back to the trail yet again! We hiked another mile or so and set up camp near Laurel Fork, at a little creek. I spilled a good portion of my noodles when draining water out of a ziplock bag. It's all good though because I was craving something cheesy, and that's exactly what I got. Half the noodles plus whole cheese packet equals excellent!

22 miles hiked today, and boy my feet know it! A blister in each ball of my feet. Not bad, but enough to be annoying. Should be a fairly easy and hopefully quick 12 miles into Kinkora Hostel tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment