Somehow 5 Turned Into 7
On day 3 of hiking I convinced my neighbor Cindy to join me in my 5-mile hike. Cough! Cough! I still was under the impression the hike around Spirit Lake was 2 miles. I hiked a mile towards her house. When I got there she was ready to go. It was already pretty warm out and I thought that her in her blue jeans could be an issue for the heat. But she was excited to go on one of my adventures. We headed off. I had 2 bottles of water and some snacks and I thought when we got halfway there, we would sit down and take a break.
We followed the same route I took on day 2. Before we made it to the halfway point, Cindy had already rolled up her blue jeans into capris. Still hot in my opinion, but she said it helped. I asked her if she would like to turn around. She said no and to continue.
At the halfway point I took out 2 mats to sit on and we sat down on the side of the dirt road. Next came water and then a protein bar. We took a nice 15-minute break and then I put away the mats and we were on our way back to Spirit Lake Road.
To say we were hot was an understatement. Sweat was dripping off of me and Cindy didn’t look any cooler. I was calculating how much further we still had to go when we crested the first rise on Spirit Lake by all the houses on the lake. When I heard someone say, “Cindy!” I looked up and there was our neighbor June and her husband Kim. She said to come and have a seat and they would get us each a glass of water. at this point, I was happy to oblige.
Her husband Kim had just finished setting up chairs for us in the shade in their garage. As we crossed the road, June came and gave us each a big hug, which I was apologizing for being so stinking wet from sweat. We went straight into the garage and I threw off my backpack and sat down. My backpack was now at full capacity. 27 lbs. which let’s face it, at my age it felt like 40.
June was now insisting that the hike around the lake was longer than 2 miles. As Kim approached with ice-cold water, he agreed and said it was more like 4. I was stunned. I thought to myself that on the AT, miles always seem longer than I thought so I just figured it must be a 2 mile hike around.
When we got all done with the water, Kim said, “Let me give you gals a ride home.” You don’t have to ask me twice. We, Cindy and I, and my arch- enemy backpack got in the air- conditioned car and headed home.
Need I feel you what was the first thing I did when I got home? I don’t think so. I jumped in my hot car and went and clocked the miles from my house, around Spirit Lake, and back home. Well, well, well. It was 4.5 miles around the lake and the total miles was 7. Hardly the 5 miles I thought I had been hiking for the past 2 days.
In the end, I guess Cindy didn’t learn her lesson because 2 days later she was willing to hike about 4 more miles with me before I left for the Ice Age Trail. Imagine that.
I wish I could tell you that I never set the woods on fire, but that just isn’t the case. 
When I was around 8-9 years old, I was pretending to camp with my younger brother Vern and 2 younger cousins. We were in the small woods behind our house. I couldn’t tell you if I was taught how to make a campfire by my dad or not. We had gone camping in the BWCA quite often and so I know I had observed how to make a campfire.
Two September’s ago I hiked out on the KEK Trail alone for 3 days. 
There had been terrible blow-downs with the most recent in 2016. It was raining the day I went in but sunny and windy when I headed out. The amount of deadfall along the trail was scary. 
All I could do was imagine the conflagration if a wildfire broke out or a careless hiker or camper left a smoldering campfire.
You may wonder why am I talking about fire? Well, I received my California Campfire Permit yesterday so that I can use my camp stove while on the PCT. We all know the fire danger that exists in the state of California. I don’t plan on having a campfire even though I will have cold temps with an early March start date. A hot breakfast and supper will be something to look forward to on cold days.
Hiker midnight for me is 7 pm and with the sunset at 6pm I know I will be snuggled up in my 15 degree Thermarest sleeping bag and X-therm mattress so no campfire will be necessary.
I woke up early, 5:00 am and packed up and told 10 Bear I was heading to Hwy ME 15 to hitch to Monson so I could go to Shaw’s to get my gear figured out.
Poet, the owner of Shaw’s, didn’t have a fix for my stove, but he did have 1 stove left to sell and so I bought that. The tent was a little more complicated. We couldn’t get replacement poles from Big Agnes in time for me to finish by the 21st. He had a tent for sale, but I didn’t want to by a new one at the tune of $400. Another hiker had a tent he was thinking of selling, so I thought about that. In the meantime, Poet mixed up J B Weld, got a screw and took apart my poles and glued the screw and a pole together. It would need 24 hours to set.
Next we came upon a river that we had to ford and neither one of us brought our camp shoes. We ended up taking off our shoes. I grabbed the rope above my head and started across. I stumbled once and got wet. I was sure glad that I didn’t have a full pack on my back. We made it back to town by 6 pm. I was glad we had slackpacked this section as it was a lot of up and down over ridge lines.
Early the next day I got up to try my tent poles. I set up my tent in the driveway at Shaw’s. The poles held. We resupplied, had a great breakfast and continued our hike into the 100 Mile Wilderness.
Beyond the Range 