I am mostly Scottish and I get angry once in a while. Does that count?
Please notice the rating of this thread. Weenies are present.

Hey! I may be humorless, but I am far from being a liberal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1CYg0vIygE

A prelude to my next entree.

July 18

A zero in Monson. We drove up to Greenville and window shopped, then drove to Rockwood and looked at a big lake for Maine. The food was great and the company better. My legs continued to have issues and my partner's feet were slowly healing. More on that later. This entree is more about gear and the changes I made.

As I planned for my walk, I drove more than a few experienced hikers batty with my postal scales and gram reduction giddiness. As it turns out, I was not enough of a gram weenie. Turns out I did not like lugging an average of 34 lbs over hills for more than 100 miles. Who would have knew?

As I sat in my room that afternoon, I looked at everything. I asked myself over and over, 'do I NEED this item?' The fishing gear was cut. All stuff sacks were cut except one small diddybag and my food bag. The 1st aid kit was greatly lightened. I did not use one 1st aid item during the entire trip. I looked at it differently now. Instead of a 'might I need this?' attitude, I asked myself what would happen given an emergency and I had zero 1st aid items. If there was an alternative to the real item, I left the real item behind. I bought a lighter bucket. The bivy and tarp was cut. A single man Llbean tent took its place. My fleece got cut. If it got cold, I would wear my Packa.

Some things were changed or even added. I added more Nuun and some tea bags for mornings. The plain oatmeal was exchanged for sugary oatmeal in lesser daily amounts. The beef jerky was exchanged for thin pepperoni sticks. The parmesan cheese was exchanged for string cheese. Things tasted different on the trail. My cravings changed. The net effect was my daily food allotment went from about 1.5 lbs to 1.4 lbs. My suppers and gorp were so calorie dense that this was plenty.

The new load felt much better. Loaded for the next leg, it weighed about as much as it did coming out of the 100-mile wilderness. The packing went like this: Trash-bag liner 1st. Big Agnes 45° sleeping bag with exped ul7 air mat in sleeve were loosely rolled and stuffed in bottom. Tent was loosely set on top of that. Poles were on one side. Food bag went on top of that. Extra clothes (not much) filled in voids. Diddybag went in next and packa filled the remaining voids on top. Maps, filter, daily walking food, water bottles, camera, and avatar were on the outside of the pack. My partner carried the stove.

That night as I ate a pizza for the 2nd night in a row, I noticed my legs swelling. They were swelling fast. My stockings acted like compression sleeves and the skin above the stocking bulged. I hobbled back to Shaws and drew a cold bath. I sat in the tub until people started knocking on the door. There are 2 bathroom and this was serious. I got out. I did not sleep well that night. At 3 AM I drew another cold bath. This got the swelling down enough to dare to try the next section. More on that in the next entree.

I have no pictures for my zero. That brings up another point. My camera weighed more than 2.5 lbs. If it weighed 20 lbs I would still have carried it. It was my item I could not live without.

for those interested there is a journal buried in here someone

I will give you a hint. It starts where you are standing.

Anybody ever been to Shaws or Lakeshore or hiked the AT or left gear behind to lighten their packs?

I picked up a heavy item I will describe in the next installment.

New day going up shortly. Posting here so I can find it in the recent list.

I sort by last visit. Example: If I was on 3 hours ago, I have system only show posts in last 4 hours. Doing it this way provides a simpler screen for modified posts and a green superscript of the new posts that can be clicked on. I read every post.

You are better than the tooth fairy on the other site. You read my mind... and was right! :whistle:

July 19

As we ate another huge breakfast at Shaws, we discussed our aches and issues. Ellie Luggah's feet was much better. He dropped more weight out of his pack than I. I am not sure of the changes. I am a school kid jumping up and down about the half gram I saved. He just does it. He borrowed a pair of my boots from home and agreed to use my glide. The boots were not the issue and were swapped out a few days later. The glide was the cure.

However, the real issue was my legs. they were like huge vienna sausages. They were like cankles that when to my hips. Getting the picture? I did not want to stop. I have lived with pain for decades. It is just pain. One cannot stop living. The compromise was for the girls to drive around to Shirley-Blanchard Road and assess things there. This would provide a 6.3 mile test.

We got a late start. Very late for my partner. He is up around 5 most mornings and ready to go soon after. I could never keep up with him on that. We walked the 6.3 miles in about 2 hours. I talked with a NoBo thru about my legs. She laughed and said you should not have stopped walking and assured me I would be fine. That was enough encouragement for me.

About a half mile from the meeting I found an abandoned Coleman folding shovel. It only weighs about 2.5 lbs :whistle: , so I thought I would pick it up and make the meeting light. My wife was very concerned about my continuing. When we met, I told them I was fine but refused to carry my partner's trowel one more step. I dropped my pack a produced the shovel.

The girls asked if we got soaked. It was more of a curiosity question. It was obvious we did not. They explained that the driving was difficult through the torrential rain. I said that we heard it in the distance, but that rain avoids us. On their return trip they had to take a detour because a large tree that had blown over in the "distant" storm.

Soon we were following the picturesque West Branch of the Piscataquis River. This "river" is full of boulders that make it sound like a continuous waterfall. We spied a deer in the middle of a set of rapids. This provided a break as we watched it for several minutes. Because of the noise of the water and wind direction, it had no clue we were there. Alas, we had to move on and in doing so jumped the deer.

At Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to, we decided to make for Moxie Bald Lean-to. The weather forecast called for lightning storms in the afternoon for the next few days. One should not be on top of Moxie Bald in any threat of lightning. It is a huge granite lightning rod with trees growing on it hiding the danger. It would mean a 17.9 mile day. We would have to keep up a quick pace to avoid that day's storm because of the late start.

Crossing the West Branch of the Piscataquis River was our only ford that was a test. The recent rain made it difficult. I was glad for the rope. Once on the other side, I dropped my pack and went back in. I got about midway and laid on my back while gripping the rope. This made for an interesting body surfing bath.

Soon my quad pain in my right leg returned. Next came cramping in my left calf. we had been changing into water shoes at every ford. But I was falling behind. When I reached the Bald Mountain Pond outlet, my partner had already changed over for the crossing. I knew if I stopped it might be the end of my day's walk. So I barged right through. About a mile later he caught me again. I explained my situation and insisted he continue. The black clouds were surrounding us like a huge horseshoe.

I did my best to keep him in sight. With about a half a mile to go and lightning getting closer, I clenched my jaw and gave her all I got. The wind was picking up and I was gaining on my partner. You could feel the air lifting. I knew I had just minutes to make it. I am spoiled. I was in pain. I did not want to get wet just now. So I said a little rhetorical prayer. I asked God if He loved me and would he allow me to get my tent set up before the downpour.

As I arrived moments after my partner, we gazed at the packed area. He noticed a sign pointing to the left for more tent sites. One person in the shelter asked if we needed room there. There is always room for one more. I said thank you, but no (we don't do lean-tos). We scrambled over to a small clearing and set up in record time. I dumped my pack, set up the tent and chucked things in. Just as I was climbing in the skies opened up. I turned to my partner just as he was ready to toss a "small" I had left on the ground. He smiled and said, "I would not expect anything else".

Shrooms.


Deer

I do too. To bad the people are not more like the people from the south.

Every person I met in Monson was great. The further you get from Boston the better they are.