July 24th, Marathon, NY

July 24, Marathon NY, 36 days out
My hitch hiking sign got me a ride to the trailhead in less than 10 min.'s saving me a 6 mile walk back to the trail with a full pack of water and food. I have never weighed my pack on the first day out, my doctor said to keep it to 30 pounds, sorry doc., I think it is more like 40 plus fully loaded. I have gone through every item and made sure I really believe I need it -- and I do because from my point of view what I have provides safety – there are just in case items. Because I have seen so few people, I must figure out what I might need, because I wont have help from passing hikers.

The forecast was for rain around 1 pm, the skies were clear all day. I saw a really good bivouac spot on top of Mt. Tiago late this afternoon, but I did not have enough water. I need at least 2 liters, one for the night and one for the morning. If I do not have any water in my two-liter container, then I am leaving camp dry, which I do not like. It means that some were in the early hours of the hike; I will have to unpack the filter and spend 30 min.'s filtering water -- that is lost prime hiking time when it is coolest. Sometimes that is the way it works out. I like to break camp with the 2-liter full and a third liter as backup stuffed in the side pocket of the backpack. The Mt. top is the best place to setup camp if it is not raining, there is usually a breeze to dry the clothes and discourage the bugs. I set up camp by a stream and filtered 4 liters of water. The streams as they are called in the FLT guide part of the map are really little creeks with allot of sediment. I always look for a place where the water is running fast enough to clear out the sediment from a spot. That way there is less fine silt on the filter cartridge. I set everything in camp allowing for the possibility of rain. Later it did start raining. I heard allot of thunder and could see lightening south of me (one keeps themselves directionally oriented all the time after the first week). The storms seem to come in two forms Cells and soaker's. The cell's can be quite local allowing me to see rain over on the side of the Mt. to the east while I am standing in the sunlight.