Day 2 9/6/15: It was a cold night last night. I know Casey was warm, but I tested the limits of my bag, and ended up wearing all my clothes to bed. Casey broke our poop shovel in the morning, leaving us with a handeless trowel with which to dig a hole. Since we went to bed so early, we were both wide awake by 6am. We had a breakfast of granola with soy milk. Yes, dried soy milk, reconstituted with water. It’s actually pretty good! We also made some tea to warm up a bit.
Early on in the hike, like 100 yards from camp, Casey started singing Tina Turner private dancer, about 30 seconds later another hiker passed by and commented that he didn’t expect there to be any entertainment out here. A brief rain started in the morning, but just as we got our rain flys and jackets on, it slowed and never really started up again. I suppose we can’t complain about that.
At around 11, We filled our water up at a stream, had a snack, and met Armstrong, a thru hiker from San Francisco who’s an electrical engineer. He was quite knowledgeable in many areas including cooking and hiking. He had actually passed our campsite last night, and camped out maybe a mile farther down the trail.
There were really no memorable views today, but the forest was pretty awe inspiring. As we approached Timothy lake we ran into a bunch of groups riding horses, which explains all the horse poop we’ve seen on the trail. There is still one type of poop we haven’t figured out yet, but it is quite green. I’m thinking mule.
The last 1.5 miles were painful, we did end up doing just over 19 miles, ending at around 5:30. It was worth it though, we ended up at a beautiful spot at the north end of Timothy lake right on the water. It’s a much warmer night tonight too. Monica and I introduced Casey to spam, and ate it with rice. A pretty filling meal, and well deserved after the long day.We also indulged in some American honey whisky. There’s really nothing better than relaxing by a lake, sipping some whisky (even American honey), and just watching the fish jump, and boats go by. It actually reminded me of our yearly summer trip to Saranac Lake, which sadly did not happen this year.
Casey and I also popped and treated some good blisters. 19 miles will really do a number on your feet. We learned that prevention of blisters is probably the best course of action. We’ll need to be better about taping up trouble spots before they turn into full on blisters. Hopefully they’ll feel better in the morning.
As the sun went down the bats came out and were swooping overhead. We stayed up a bit later, in the tents by 8:40, but we did see a few stars come out. We have a hope of hitching into government camp tomorrow for some beers in the late afternoon.
