04 SU May 30, 2021 – Plan around the rain

This was a decisive day – either to go or to stay. I woke up spent and I was ready to call it quits.
08:32 – first picture of a morning fire with a bucket of water next to it – for safety. I am 3.6 mi from the car. I can do either 3.6 mi or add another loop of about 22 mi spread evenly for today, tomorrow and Tuesday. Insects made the most formidable argument to go, but my detailed plan urged to continue.
By 10:43 I am finally ready to go ang hike. IT is 11.1 mi to the next shelter. Duality in feelings.
10:58 – almost immediately found cell the rain will start today at 5PM and there is no end to it till tomorrow – the Memorial Day. Ok. Potentially, I can do 11 mi before 5 PM and just outwait the rain at the shelter.
12:08 – walked to the car. My average speed was 2.6 mi/h. I dropped the garbage, took a picture of maps that I had in the car
12:30 – start hiking again. Now I need to walk 7.6 mi to the Potaywadjo Spring Shelter in 4 hours. OK. And the terrain will be mostly flat.
13:25 – crossing a solid snowmobile road with a solid bridge.
14:07 – a small field of lily of the valley (ландыши) in a full bloom.
14:36 – trail goes right to the water, right to very shore of Lower Jo Mary Lake. But shore is to narrow and not prompting to stay and enjoy. Plus, a constant pressure to get to shelter before the rain.
14:50 completed another 5.2 mile. Super uneventful. For the last couple of miles, I was waiting to get to something or somewhere and that something never materialized. Finally, I stopped simply on top of a large stone and started to dry my socks. Boring trail goes around beautiful places, lakes, and mysterious shorelines. But it never reached a logical stopping point or amazing vista.
15:02 – I put on my mosquito mask.
15:10 – I turned out I was just a few hundred yards from Potaywadjo Ridge Trail – a dead end appendix in a miserable state of overgrowth. In another few hundred yard – a message from iHikeGPS – your track is full. Made a stop to send a segment of a track via email, cleared the space and resumed.
16:13 – I am at the shelter. No one here so far. In a few minutes party of 2 will arrive – Brian and J. They also trying to get under the rood before the rain starts. They are Southbound, and they paid $175 each to a caretaker in Monson to host their car, one night at the motel and drive them to the start of 100-mile wilderness and drive their supplies to locked boxes at Jo Mary Road and KIW Road. They and with a dog Koda.
18:10 – fire is going, rain is rustling, food is cooking.
18:58 -rain is picking up pace. Lentil Soup is on simmer. Hammock is hanging inside the shelter along with 2 tents from my new neighbors.