ET's Info-Stew

06:30: It is so beautiful and peaceful up here. It is great to be able to hear only the sound of nature and nothing made by humans. I found out that in the mountains, no matter what time I fall asleep, I am a morning person. I went to sleep at 11 PM and woke up for the first time at 5 AM on the minute. I felt almost wide awake and should have gotten up but didn't. After a little more sleep (and a lot more awake), I got out of bed at about 6:10 AM. Now I'm sitting on some large rocks by Loon Lake, on the other side of the lake from the trailhead. The view is amazing and I even saw a fish jump 1 1/2 feet clean out of the water.

18:23: The hike is long over. We finally setup camp about 1:30 PM in a little grove of trees, 50 feet from the lake. We're about 80 yards from the point where we fished last time. The hike was very hard for me. I felt pretty well until Buck Island when I started getting a bad feeling in my stomach about a mile from Rockbound. I took care of my business using a technique learned from Mr. Cleeks How to Shit in the Woods book. I wont go into details. The trail wasn't like hiking uphill, it was more like walking upstream. My boots and socks got pretty wet and my ankles were starting to lose strength. We stopped only three times the whole hike and I didn't take off my boots until camp was set up. No blisters this time. After I set up my tent, I felt so bad, tired, achy, and hungry (but not) that I took a two hour nap while Mr. Cleek went for a walk and fishing. I felt so bad that I never wanted to backpack again. I felt much better after my nap and was once again enthusiastic about the trip. We made dinner about 5 PM. I had chilimac and green beans. My stove and cooking was perfect as well as the meal itself. Mr. Cleek had a little more trouble than me. His stove doesn't burn as fluently and, best of all, he found out he only brought two dinners for a three night trip. Pretty funny I think. Right now we're fishing on the point by our campsite for Mr. Cleek's dinner for tomorrow (he he). I have been sitting here about twenty minutes without a bite. It's getting a tad cold as the sun is getting lower. I miss Jenny pretty bad. I'm very happy with most my gear I brought. My tent door is a bit small when you're getting in it with the fly on. Of the front stakes for the fly, I only have the right one staked down to give me better access to the door. I brought four extra stakes which I can get rid of along with my footprint. I want to get my own water filter and a much smaller reel for fishing. My chair is great, sleeping bag is great. I think that I need to decide what clothes and other things to take based on what I expect the climate to be like. This time we figured it would be pretty cold but that isn't the case. I'm glad I didn't carry too much extra stuff. My clothes are great. I thank Mr. Cleek for convincing me to take fleece clothes. They are very warm. Speaking of which, time to change into some warm clothes, check out the photo for 6-10 at 6:57 PM to see the view I'm looking at now.

22:10: I saw four shooting starts, two satelites and of course, looked and mine and Jenny's star at ten O'clock. We didn't even get a bite on our fishing poles for the three hours we were fishing. Right now, I have my pole in the lake with no luck. At 8:00 PM, we hung up our food. First, Mr. Cleek tied a rock to his string and threw it over our designated branch. He got a good shot his first throw and he tied up his food. Next, I took my rock with string and threw it. It hit the branch and came back down. Then I threw it again. It went over our branch, wrapped around another one, rewrapped around our first branch and the rock got stuck. Mr. Cleek busted up laughing. I did eventually get my food up.