Entry for June 7, 2007
Easy and Hard - the Quiz
Welcome, boys and girls!
So we're going to play a little game with this post here, it's going to be like a little exercise to reinforce the lessons from the previous two posts! I'm going to tell you a story, and it is up to you to identify what is easier than you'd expect, and what is harder than you expect. I chose this day because I thought it was quite clear-cut.
On June 2nd I did my first 21 mile day, going from Hurricane Mountain Shelter to Partnership Shelter. It didn't seem like we were ever going to make it there on time - in the morning no one was really in a hurry to get moving, though we were all looking to make the same long day. I ran into some trouble getting the bear bag down because the night before when it was hung the bags themselves got caught on a knot on the branch, so they wouldn't come down with the rope. I had to find a very long branch that wasn't so dead that it broke under the slightest load, and hoist them off the knot.
I also made a couple of bathroom trips in the morning alone, and by the end of the day I had made at least 5 (I'm not including peeing). By the end of the day, I'd hiked 31 miles over a day and 6 hrs' period, with a solid case of diarreah ("solid" being an accidental euphemism...). It isn't so fun hiking with a stomach rumbling so hard that you have to stop walking and clench up so you don't make any mistakes.
The hike that day was fairly tame, terrain-wise though. There were probably about 7-8 miles of honest flat terrain which was a huge help. When we finally got to the shelter, there were a lot of people there. People had been talking about this shelter in the registers for the past couple days, and for good reason - it's right next to the Mt Rogers National Recreation Area (yes, they call themselves the "NRA"... I wanted to walk into the building and ask to speak to Charlton Heston) which means there is a phone, and a road. And just a little ways down the road... is a Pizza Hut... who loves delivering to hikers. It has gotten the nickname of "Pizzaship" shelter instead of "Partnership", very appropriately. So that was a welcome break from preparing your same-old food.
The shelter was very nice - two floors, with a spigot for water on the back of it. Of course it would be nice, for those day-hikers coming to visit the Mt Rogers NRA, looking to "rough it" over-night. The next morning it was raining, and you could tell it was the type of rain that was going to pour down all day long. The hike was up and down some hills over 7 miles, some fairly rocky decents too, to where I took a break at a shelter to dry off and cook a warm lunch. I took off my wet socks, hung them up, changed into some dry ones, put on my fleece, and relaxed in my respite of the rain. I knew my dry socks would get wet soon enough as soon as I went back out there, but it's a nice illusion at least for a little while.
Back into the rain, it was another 4 miles or so until my destination. I was already planning on going to this motel that was right off where the trail crossed a road (I had a package of 4-days worth of groceries sent there - you buy 8 days at a time, you can split up the oatmeal, pop tarts, and other such so that you get a variety, and save time!) but with the rain and all, a few more hikers figured it would be a worthy investment to take the opportunity to really dry off, take a shower, do some laundry - oh crap! At this point, I realized that I left my wet socks hanging up in the last shelter. That Smartwool stuff is expensive. But it isn't worth going back for. Well, you lose things. So, you get all dry and clean and such, stay in a real bed for a night - it's a welcome break, and these things come up from time to time, and they're needed every so often.
I guess the last point in this easy/hard lesson/quiz dichotomy is... that I stuck my head out the motel door and saw Tanto, this kid I met at Pizzaship shelter. He calls over and says "Hey you're Sudoku, right?" I said yes. He says, "I think I have your socks!" I'd say I was surprised... impressed... something - but honestly, I've gotten used to this kind of thing. I've also lost, and had returned, my SteriPEN, and my trekking poles ::sheepish grin:: haha. The poles were just shuffled around and misplaced at Trail Days, the SteriPEN was left behind at a spring or a shelter, and that was a week-long adventure of "hey I was talking to someone who found a SteriPEN," "did you talk to Ragnar? I think he knows who has your SteriPEN," "yeah, I heard from Beauty and the Beast that they have your SteriPEN, they're going to get it to me when they get into Erwin and then I'll find you at Trail Days and give it to you".... yeah. So anyway, it just doesn't surprise me anymore. I gave Tanto some Reeces peanut butter cups for his efforts and thanked him. I've carried gear left behind for folks a couple times, it's just part of what makes this individual effort so... supported.
So there you have it. I just found that 2 day period to be striking in how clearly easy and hard it was, alternatively. Hope you did well in identifying it all... the quiz will be self-graded, and you can all give yourselves a nice pat on the back for tolerating a long post.
