We got off to a really late start today. The people at Walasi-yi will do a free pack shakedown for you and I was curious if they would have any advice for me. The guy looked through my stuff and gave me an A+, so I got to pat myself on the back for that. I guess most people that he sees come through there end up dropping 15-20 lbs of stuff. He gave me a free coke for actually knowing what I'm doing, totally worth it. He also made a comment at one point that the shelters would be busy tonight and after I looked at him quizzically he clarified that it was the weekend, apparently I've already lost track... While I was there I also spent some time fixing some tears in the mesh of my pack, that TSA so kindly put in it, using dental floss and a needle.
After getting some time on the computer there we set out at 10:30ish. We have had a couple longer days so we decided to play our destination by ear and just do a relaxing day and see where we ended up.
The hardest part of the day today was definitely the climb out of Tesnatee Gap, we gained about 600 feet elevation in a little under 3/4 mile. There was also only about 2 water crossings the whole day so we were conserving a lot.
The guy at Neels wasn't kidding, the shelter area is packed. I would guess 20-30 people are here. Tonight we finally gave Chris and John trail names. Chris is dip'n'sip because he stops at every stream crossing with a little cup to drink. John is GQ because even after 4 days of hiking it is almost impossible to tell he has been hiking at all and we all swear he is ironing his shirts somehow.
We got some more details about the guy that I mentioned the other day who had all the peanut butter, apparently he was planning to make it to Maine without resupplying... So he started out carrying 14 lbs peanut butter, 80 packs ramen, three pairs of shoes, two packs and 20 dollars... Also rolling into camp tonight was a man in his 60s who recently had open heart surgery and had 26 stints. Nobody is sure if he'll stick with it because he is carrying too much weight but best of luck to him.
The rain never hit us today but it's looking like we will get thunderstorms for the next 3 days now. The storm isn't supposed to hit until tomorrow afternoon so we are going to get an early start tomorrow and see if we can beat the weather.
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