Day 2 - Gooch Mountain

Last night, about 11pm, I woke up out of a sound sleep to very strange sounds. there was Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, then lots of yipping. I thought coyotes were in the area. I found out today the noise was barred owls. Sounded like a whole flock. Anyway, while I was trying to figure out what the noise was, the Rangers, apparently on night manuvoers, had a firefight going on with lots of small arms fire and grenades or some other cannon like sounds. Pretty busy till about midnight when all the animals decided to call it a night. Earlier in the evening, the "kids" staying in the Hawk Mountain shelter decided to have a bon fire. So I went up and hung out, chit chatting awhile. By 8:30pm I went to bed.

This morning I was up as soon as I could see without a light, about 7am. Some of the others were already up and tearing down their tents. I did the normal morning stuff, said hi to Tiger Bomb and Katahdin Kid, then Sherpa and I were on the trail by 0840. We hiked together pretty much all day tho she does hike faster than me and she pulled ahead after lunch. I don't mind, it's nice to have the trail to myself.

Today I spotted columbine budding, tho one plant had gotten to full bloom. Also red trilliums and a tree flowering with pink flowers. I got a picture of that one. See my MySpace page. http://www.myspace.com/312345632

Gooch Mountain shelter is pretty nice, quite a few tent sites and a 2 level shelter. Like Hawk Mountain shelter, bear cables are available to hang our food. Lots of hikers here tonight. The "Shelter Kids" are building another bon fire but I'm too tired to really participate. I was in my sleeping bag again by 8:30pm.