I slept in until 9am today, but truly needed it after my lack of sleep the night before. Not to mention that rough night hike. We got moving a little after 10am to travel 19.2 miles deeper into the Shenny's. First things first, we had to pick up some water at the spring, because it would be 13 miles before we came to another water source.
Loaded down with provisions, we walked across a rather rocky beginning to this theoretically easy stretch of trail. A couple miles out Mr. Fantastic stopped to use the little boys room, or tree, and I kept moving. I didn't see him again until the 13 mile water source at the shelter.
During my time alone the trail lost its rocks, and I was able to enjoy a leisurely hike across terrain that reminded me of the woods in Jersey. When I arrived at the shelter with the water, I came across Tiny Dancer and Pinball Wizard, both putting the finishing touches on a massive pile of food. They planned to do another 13 miles to the next shelter, a marathon day. Mr. F and I had the campsites in mind instead, not willing to put in that kind of time/distance quite yet.
Mr. Fantastic arrived, and we wished our fellow hikers luck in their travels. We, in the meantime, watched an episode of The Totally Rad Show and enjoyed a few snacks. Then, after finding the privy, we continued our 6.2 miles toward the campgrounds.
We talked about video games on the way, trying to figure out our top 5 games for each system starting with Nintendo. It was a challenging discussion, but kept us both entertained and engaged for most of our hike.
The campsite is massive, a giant maze of roads and plots that look like a bloated cancerous heart. Instead of finding thru-hikers, in a place like this you see people driving in. Mr. Fantastic called them "city folk", since anyone who carries a tote bag into our neck of the woods can't be one of us.
It's still nice to see people, always alleviating the fear of bears a bit. At the same time the national park areas of the trail are always the most littered with trash, and the most likely place to find a bear accustomed to people food. That's what you don't want. Let's all say it together now, if you pack it in, pack it out.
I'll share a story about Suds to finish today's post. A few weeks ago he was climbing up a mountain and found a pile of trash in the middle of the trail that someone had just lit on fire. They had set it ablaze, and quickly hiked away, leaving the fire to its own devices. Since Suds could still hear them he grabbed the pile of burning trash and ran after them. When he caught up he dropped it at their feet saying, "I think you dropped this". One of the guys shouted an impotent "Hey!" after him, but Suds had taken off up the trail as fast as he could, not wanting to get in a fight with a bunch of angry day-hikers. Thankfully he knew that they'd never be able to catch him, since he was in thru-hiker shape. Just another day for Suds, keeping the trail safe from pollution, forest fire, and assholes.
