ET's Info-Stew

11:40: I got up very early this monring to head up to lake Eleanor. We left my place at 4:15 am and got to the ranger station at about 7:30 or so. We got to the trail head at about 8:30, but not the same one as last time. If you go right at the fork instead of left you get to a trailhead 1/3 mile from the dame. That saved about 2 miles, which I can appreciate.

I was fairly tired after the hike, which was understandable since we didn't take a break, even for a few minutes. There's another tent in the area, but we camped in the same spot. I put my tent in the same place, then took a dip and pumped some water.

The water feels very nice. It's not so cold you don't want to get in, but not so warm you don't want to get out. It was brisk and refreshing after 90 minutes of work.

The way I packed my pack worked out great, though I felt it lean a little to the right. It sucked putting my sleeping pad on at the trailhead, so next time I'll do it the night before. The food bag in front worked fairly well, but it wasn't exactly convenient to get inside the zip-lock bag. It's still early so after lunch, some reading, and a short nap, maybe I'll go exploring.

16:05: After a nap in the shade and a bit of reading, the three of us decided to take a hike to Frog Creek. There was a sign indicating a large waterfall and a pool 1/2 mile upstream. So we started going up until we were about 100 yards from the falls, but there was no way to make further progress. So we started to head back down to look for a place to safely cross without getting shoes wet. Well eventually we went all the way back down to the lake, still with no way to cross. I wanted to go bad enough to convince myself to take off my shoes and wade across. That was a big mistake. After going across in two spots my feet were in excruciating pain. I decided to break down and get my shoes wet. But just as I was about to, Bill pointed out that crossing the creek from where we were wouldn't work either. So we decided to turn around and come back another day when there was more daylight to allow our shoes to dry.

We made our way back to camp and I headed straight to the point for a refreshing swim. That's when I noticed how sunburned I was. I could see the redness on my shoulders and feel the small twinge of pain on my
neck. I decided that I would stay out of the sun the rest of the day.

I can't explain what happened. Before both hikes I put on sunblock. The only full-on sun exposure was when I was on the point swimming, drying or pumping water. Perhaps my shirt isn't too good at protecting me from sun, indicating I need to wear sunblock under the shirt.

Since all I had to eat today was a bagel, some GORP, and a powerbar, I'm starving I'm really looking forward to dinner.

21:58: I laid down in the shade to read and ended up taking a two hour nap. When I got up it was dinner time. I was looking forward to it, but I was disappointed. The matches and lighter prank we played on Bill didn't work. Even after we took the seven boxes of matches and a lighter out of his pack, he still had another one stashed away. So the whole prank was useless. Dinner tasted good but I was still hungry afterward since I didn't have anything else to eat today, really.

Eventually we started a fire and I had hot chocolate. At one point Carl and I heard something streak quickly across the sky like a golf ball. I think it was a meteorite, which is so cool. One interesting thing about tonight is that the moon is a cresent moon, and it has already set. Tonight would be a good night to look at stars and I may do just that.

I took a Tylenol PM so I'll see how that affects my sleep. Right now it's so hot I will have to wait for it to cool down to get to sleep.

22:35: I let my eyes adjust to the dark then opened up my tent door. The sky was full of stars just as I had hoped. I think I could even make out the cloudiness of the milky way. I also happened to see three satelites and one awesome shooting star that was bright with a very long tail. I'm very satisfied and I hope it's like this tomorrow night too.