30 Jun 05

Today I had to ford another brook. I was not looking forward to wet feet again so I was happy that i was possible to rock hop it. I was almost across when I slid down a slippery boulder and plunged my right foot into the water past my gator. So I had one wet foot. Had to put on a dirty sock but at least it was dry. At least until I put it into my wet boot.

Since I stopped early today, I did some laundry. Even though I may make Monson tomorrow, I was starting to reek really badly. I also tried to wash my shorts and may have been slightly successful. I don't think any of it will be dry tomorrow so I will have a cold start.

It was still a long day today even with stopping early. 8.7 miles plus the 0.4 miles to get back on the trail from the lean-to. There are a couple of chatty hikers and I hope they settle down soon. Also I hope the trains are not too loud.

I decided that with so many people at the site, that a fire was called for. So I carefully built up a stack of small twigs over a pile of birch bark. Then I got larger twigs and filled out the pile. The bark burnt okay but the twigs wouldn't quite catch. At this point I also thought I heard someone complain about the fire, but I am not sure. I grabbed a few sheets of paper from the lean-to register, pulled of some of the larger sticks and shoved the paper into my carefully built wood pile. The paper took and eventually so did the wood. I added more wood then let it go. I figured I would give it minimal attention and when it died, it died. Then the complainer added more wood and so did a few other people. We also had a fair number of people sittling around it for most of what was left of the day. My first fire with no help was quite a success.