July 26th, Bivouac

July 26, Biouac, In a Pine woods

While eating breakfast, sitting on a fallen tree, I saw the outline of a knife. When I picked it up and cleaned it off, I discovered a very well made 8 in. hunting knife in a deteriorated sheath. It had clearly been there a long time, and I assume lost by someone who was hunting. I found myself in a dilemma, leave it there, carry the weight and figure out how to get it to Wis., leave it on someone's doorstep, or find a home for it. I decided to take it with me and look for a suitable home. I tucked it into the side pocket of my pack and started the day's hike. The FLT was allot of road walk, according to the guide, the landowner on this section had withdrawn permission for the trail to go over his land. I reached a county road that went into the little town of Oselic where there was a store. I decided to hitch hike to it and then angle over to the trail. The hitch hiking did not go well, so I started walking the 5 miles to town. I paused at a road intersection and started hitch hiking again, and was quickly picked up by a woman, her 19 y/o son and a 12 y/o neighbor boy. They said they were going right past the trail connection, but had to be somewhere first, so I could ride along. It turned out that they were going to Norwich to get ready for the county fair scheduled for next week. The lady dropped off the boys, took me to an Arby's, and then drove me to the trailhead. I asked the lady if her son was a hunter and she said all the men in the extended family were hunters. I told her the story of the knife find, asked it her son would use it, and she said yes. Yea, I found a home for a high quality knife, got an Arby's very large sandwich, and got taken to the trailhead. Interestingly, when she asked what kind of food I wanted while we were in town, I went blank, just too many choices. Finally, roast beef, hit my food cravings. I keep saying we as a culture, have far too many choices about the same type of item.
I was dropped off where the guide said there was a bivouac spot. I could not find it. It is usually the case that the bivouac area noted on the map has no sign at the location indicating the general area to set up a camp sight (and often there is no water at the bivouac sight, which means one has to plan ahead and carry enough water for the evening and the morning meals).
The crazy line going through my head again: knutes to the right of me, knutes to the left of me, here I am stuck in the middle again.