July 29th, Willie Pond

July 29th, Willie Pond Bivouac

Lesson: Yesterday I made two decisions, which cost me 1 1/2 hours of time, resulting in me getting to the shelter in mid afternoon. I decided to stay at the shelter. It stormed last night, and I was warm and dry in the shelter with dry gear and clothes this morning. I gave myself a hard time for not being more accurate or careful ---- YET it turned out rather well for me. While the saying is hindsight is 20/20, hindsight can show you that what you thought was a mistake etc, really lead to a good outcome later. SO STOP GIVING YOURSELF SUCH A HARD TIME FISHER !!!!!!

I hiked 18 miles today. My best mileage. Met a man taking his second daily walk. He had a side arm, which I asked him about. (a .38 special). He said that coyotes had attacked a couple of people the past year. And, that a neighbor who rides her horse in the woods started carrying a pistol after seeing a large black mountain lion. Coming down the smooth, soft, pine needle covered path to the bivouac area, I was paying attention to the blue blazes and did not notice the branches across the path. My feet got tangled in them and I took a fall with a face plant into the ground. I twisted enough for my left hip to fall on my loaded pack (later I found a slight dent in my cook pot), but the pine kneels on the ground gave my face a rash. The guide on the map said that water could be taken from the pond. When I went over to the pond it was clearly 2-3 feet lower than normal, algae covered, and allot of tannic acid. Fortunately, I had two liters for evening and morning, but that meant I would be leaving camp dry in the morning. A couple with a very young child and 3 dogs came down to the pond so that the dogs could retrieve tennis balls when thrown out into the pond. The man said that he needed to fix the spillway boards that had been torn away by "something" probably a beaver. He said there was no other source of water for me.