app trail day 11

Day 11      9/22/10
Apple Orchard trail parking lot --> North Creek camp ground (5 miles)

Good day today. Last night i was scared to go outside and pee because of spiders and half-seriously looked for something inside the tent to pee in. We had read in a register that "Last night while in my hammock I peed in a Ziploc baggie. Quite a feat considering the female anatomy. This morning, I accidentally spilled the contents of the baggie, in my boot..." So it can be done, see. But i ended up braving the 8-legged million out there and hastily peed, got some on my socks and scurried back into the tent.
I slept awful- only 4 hours. I was so incredibly sticky that I couldn't sleep. It was nasty. We had the choice between two hard 8 mile days to meet Corey, to be followed by the difficult, long hikes that awaited us when Corey came (tomorrow late night) or walk 2 miles continuing on that dreadful apple orchard and then another 3 miles on a forest road. We chose the latter and accomplished the hike/walk in 1.5 hours. Much easier to knock out miles when you're not killing your knees downhill or have uphill against you. The rocks and uneven ground kill you, add a backpack and it's no easy task. I'll never balk at walking 9 "normal" miles again. So we got to the campground and paid $20 (honor system) for 2 nights and picked the 1st nice site we saw. The sites are big, but very basic. No showers or running water toilets, no camp store, nothing. Just a site for a grill thing for the campfire and a picnic table, which we never get at the shelters because we're always beat to it. I was excited. We set up camp-I set up the tent by myself for the first time! and ate a mountain house meal of beef terryaki-not bad. But before we ate, we ...showered! Hung up the pocket shower on the bear bag hanger provided and let that old sweat and grime slide off my body. It was refreshing and I feel awesome. Then, as I said we ate and then collected firewood. a lady noticed we were looking and told us it was slim pickins and told us we should drive and get some. After I informed her we were hikers, she appeared on our site with firewood. People are so nice to hikers. We had heard thunder and there was a storm apparently in the valley. I'm glad we were here and at 1200 feet and not on top of Apple Orchard mountain at 4200 ft. (highest peak 200 miles South and 1,000 miles North). It started to rain and thunder and lightning our way so we put the firewood under the picnic table and got into the tent. We read some more and then when it stopped raining, we made the fire and ate mashed taters with gravy and grilled salami. The "host" couple -staying in their RV- of the campground came and talked to us. Then, we continued eating. Now, we're going to read and hang out. Such a great day. Seth and I are super happy!

P.S. Now that we're on this road, it'll be easier for Corey to get us. The original plan was that we were going to stand on the side of some highway at midnight and when a car honked, we'd hop in. Wow, bozos, that's a fool-proof plan if I ever heard of one.