I met up with my first thru hiker today. About 1000 he was sitting down to breakfast at a shelter I was going to pass. He said his name was mercury and he believed he was second in line for the SOBO's (south bounders) these are the folks that started on Katahdin in May. Mercury told me he thought there was a fellow in front of him who was going to set some sort of "unassisted" AT SOBO traverse. He was second and there were two strong fellows coming up behind him, Rooster and Danko. Mercury had an advanced alcohol stove that had a simmer adjustment. There was a band around the vent holes of your basic cat food can stove and the threads of a Sheetrock screw would adjust how tight the band closed around the vents. Anyway he could now simmer food and not just turn the heat on or off. He told me that he had begun training for this trip a month before he started. He said he was doing 20 mile days. I am not convinced that a near weightless stove compensates for the fuel you'll have to carry and then the amount of heat you get out of it. I can heat a cup of water in no time. As I headed out for derricks knob shelter I run into Rooster (no Danko - was he off peeing?)
At Derrick knob I met Troy and mike and a bunch of other boys. Most of them are heading into a historic "cove". Sort of a old timely settlement. I wonder what they are going to do when they get there and find everything shut down. One of these homeboys came back from getting water and said there a bear in a tree down there. It's about dusk and we all grab our headlamps and traipse off to see a bear. Turns out it was a turkey up there "fixin" to go to sleep. I think that was the same fellow that really has a snoring problem, a real snoring problem. One of the other fellows was a manager at peddlers in gatlinburge and he said we could all come in for steak dinners and he would buy dessert .
At Derrick knob I met Troy and mike and a bunch of other boys. Most of them are heading into a historic "cove". Sort of a old timely settlement. I wonder what they are going to do when they get there and find everything shut down. One of these homeboys came back from getting water and said there a bear in a tree down there. It's about dusk and we all grab our headlamps and traipse off to see a bear. Turns out it was a turkey up there "fixin" to go to sleep. I think that was the same fellow that really has a snoring problem, a real snoring problem. One of the other fellows was a manager at peddlers in gatlinburge and he said we could all come in for steak dinners and he would buy dessert .
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