27 June 2001 ~ Lambert's Meadow Shelter ~ 10 miles hiked

Today we went over McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs, and both had excellent views.  Best of all, you can see the entire ridge you just hiked all the way from McAfee from Tinker.  It's a pretty rewarding sight.

This section (not just today, the whole trip so far) seemed quite difficult to me even though I've been doing bigger miles and longer climbs.  I wasn't expecting the water to be so scarce, or I would have planned on having the capacity to carry more.  Also, it's been bloody hot, and that makes things seem quite hard.

The setting here is quite nice, but I bet the water source will be dried up in a week or two without significant rain.  We tried to make a fire to keep the bugs away, but neither of us did too well with it.  Instead, we pitched out tents with our heads together so we could talk in screened comfort away from the bastard bugs.

I saw an enormous beetle today, the largest I've ever seen.  We also saw a turtle on McAfee that appeared to either have a goiter or two heads.  It was very weird.  It crawled under the bushes, and I didn't have the energy to hunt it down to take a picture.  I hope it's some normal turtle illness and that it didn't really have two heads.  I don't even want to think about what that means for an ecosystem.