I knew the climb out of Brown Gap would be do-able, but man it is hard to convinced my legs to work hard first thing in the morning.
Got to Max Patch and all the hard work was worth it. Wonderful weather, blue skies, and a spectacular view. There was one little streak of snow that remained, and people had stuck beer in the snow for hikers. I got up to the summit and Silver Streak & OWL were laying in the grass, eating snacks. So I joined them in my nerd ninja getup (glasses on top of balaclava). We hung out for an hour or so on top of the bald, soaking in the sun and the beauty. Then started hiking again...when we came around to the other end of the bald, there were former thru hikers with more trail magic! FreightTrain and others had beer and lots of fruit - I had a few grapes and saved a clementine for later. Lots of day hikers out - always nice to see friendly faces on the trail - just a spectacular day.
OWL scored 4 apples, 2 oranges, some biscotti, and some 'sweets and beets' chips from a couple ladies while waiting for me to catch up. It was the perfect afternoon snack at the meetup spot by the creek.
We had talked about cooking at Lemon Gap, instead of cooking at the shelter. But it was early so we pressed on. My guidebook (AWOL's) said make sure to hang food and cook away from the shelter. Silver Streak's guidebook (the companion) said "If you choose to stay here...be aware that the neighborhood bears are not afraid of hikers". Eek.
The shelter looked like a little house on the prairie shelter - very small and very old. The privy tilted to the left - a weird feeling for sure.
We cooked on top of the grassy clearing a few hundred yards away. It was really nice up there - plus I had a Mountain House dinner for the first time this trip. Those things are surprisingly good! OWL had beef stroganoff and I had lasagna...both were delicious. (Side note: the mountain house eggs are NOT delicious. Don't try them.)
The shelter log made no mention of bears, but lots of mice. So after making sure every scrap of food was hung (OWL hung her entire backpack!), we went to sleep. The shelter was cold and it was very windy outside. But I slept well.
The next morning, I woke up early (6:15) to try to get into Hot Springs early...a friend from home (Joel) was planning to meet me. I grabbed the bear bags and OWL came out to get her backpack. Said she had the most vivid dream that there were mice chewing toilet paper from Silver Streak's pack, and then using it to decorate the shelter with tp streamers and other elaborate decorations. Kinda funny...until SilverStreak started looking in his pack and found his spare roll of toilet paper shredded! Then OldGoat started looking in his pack and found shredded toilet paper! I guess OWL is the mice whisperer...
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