We ate another wonderful breakfast at Elmers then geared up and left, heavier with the food we had loaded up, and heavier with the food we had eaten. We weighed ourselves at the outfitters when we came in (I had lost about 7 lbs from my ‘normal’ weight), and I found that I had gained 4 of those back.
We did about 11 miles due to our late start and the location of a shelter. I wanted to do more, but everyone was crashing there, and when I got there, it was a good time to stop. We didn’t get hungry till lunch, which was odd. Usually we eat breakfast, then a midmorning snack, lunch, midafternoon snack (or two, sometimes), and dinner. But we didn’t need the midmorning, and lunch was lighter than normal. There was an incident with a King Snake today that Caleb laughed a lot about. We always share the lead, because it’s fun leading. So I’m in the lead, and I’m trucking along, and then there’s movement right by my foot. I jump outa my skin, give a yell, and Caleb laughs immensely. A king snake (ok, it was pretty big), had been hanging out, and decided I was too close, so it moved. Jumped outa my skin. Krebopple taught us a rule that we hadn’t known of before: the Ounce rule. Every ounce of food should yield 100 calories. If it’s less effective, it’s too heavy, and why bother? The hike started off uphill, but it wasn’t hard at all. There was brief talk of slack-packing (getting Elmer to drive us to a point north, then hiking back to Hot Springs with minimal supplies), but I’m glad we didn’t. I would have been bummed, because nothing was hard enough to warrant needed the reduced pack weight (or the $ he would charge for driving us up and around). We met stinging nettles for the first time. They weren’t fun. You always brush up against stuff growing near the trail, but those things…it feels like they bite you…they snag into you, and it hurts. And then you brush against another, and it continues to feel like it bites. No fun. We finally made it to the shelter, discovered a lot of bugs, and wandered a little farther up the trail to a nice campsite. Met a guy there who had yet to be christened with a trail name. Later, we named him Mcgyver, because he could make the craziest stuff with what he had on hand. It was pretty awesome. We settled around, and So-Close and Krebopple taught us Euchre, which I’m trying not to forget, but it’s slipping away slowly.
The group! Me, the Prof, C, So close, and Krebopple.
A really large/gross bug.
Hot Springs...there isn't much there, but those hot springs are worth it...
The river we almost went rafting on.
A mountain!
The King Snake that Scared me, climbing a tree.
View from a tower.
This guy died a week before I was born. I like old tombstones...they all have a story to tell. Like books that you can't open.
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