ElizabethClose

September 1- wow, it's September. It rained a little overnight and I was, once again, very thankful for my Warbonnet Superfly as I had dry gear and a dry space to pack up. Called out sunrise to everybody at 5:45, some grumbly replies but no faces. I left at 6 and barely walked 20 feet before the rocky outcrop opened up in front of me and I saw the sunrise. Beautiful!! Unfortunately I had some urgent business and needed to get down off the alpine zone ASAP. Even more unfortunately, there was a steep rocky descent and I didn't make it before having to stop and do my morning thing... and being a good doobie I deployed a sandwich sized ziplock Baggie in a manner I hope to NEVER have to repeat. Put that Baggie inside another Baggie and tried not to gag as I tucked it into the outside pocket of my pack. Not exactly the High Point of my trip. I made it to water at Zeta Pass and stopped to chat and eat with the English group camped there. Pretty uneventful day - mount Moriah by lunch and then almost all downhill with no crazy rock climbing required. I got back to the hostel at 5 and saw Ginger Tiger sitting outside. He was on the phone and I waved as I went in to find Theresa. He came into the garage as Theresa came out and he told me he had been carrying "this" for over a week ... Dug in his pack and fished out a soggy wad. It was my bandanna!!! The one I left at Sabbath Day Pond!! I'm so excited! I told them about my slack packing adventure and they headed out on the Walmart shuttle. I decided to buy an extra night instead of hammocking out. Good choice as I had a good long Epsom salt soaky bath and tucked into bed by 8.


September 2-Friday. Great breakfast as usual and ginger tiger asked me to transport a food bag to Pinkham for him on Saturday then he headed south through the the wildcats. Theresa caught a ride to the post office and then bought a shuttle to Pinkham for a northbound trip through the wildcats. I called triple A and added Kyle to my account and asked about getting him triptiks for our slack packing adventure. I got all the towns listed and sent in email so they have enough time to work on them. Somebody left a huge box of free food on the hiker table so I grabbed some peanut butter, oatmeal,Hershey bars, rice&beans and a teeny spice bottle. I also snacked on dried fruit, which I cut up and added to the oatmeal baggies along with some brown sugar. I figure 6 days at 8-10 miles a day will get me to Lincoln and resupply. I organized food and snacks and drink mix baggies and packed up my stuff sacks. 14 lbs of food. Bleaugh! Laid out my hiking clothes, took one more shower and headed to bed. Tomorrow I'll catch the Pinkham shuttle and set camp close to the visitors center for sabbath. I'm posting this now while I have wifi