Oxford County

Such a low KM day. 3 things impacted this, my laziness in getting moving in the morning, the notch, rain this arvo.

For some reason just could not get moving this morning. Stayed in bed for so long, enjoying the feeling of being warm, dry and comfortable. Once I did get up it was then easy get ready and go for the day.

I did waste time on water though. According to my maps the only nearby water source was 1/3 of a mile back down the trail, so I went there and back to collect water for the day. An error in hindsight as there were small streams and such along the trail for the next couple of hours.

Today I understood a section of track referred to as the Notch. I'd been hearing about this for weeks, and yes, it is tough. Basically the Notch is a gully that runs between two mountains where very large boulders have fallen into over the years. Traversing the gully involves not only climbing over and around the boulders, but also going under them through short cave systems. Often you have to remove your pack in order to fit through, either pushing it in front of you or reaching back to drag it through. Climbing over and around the boulders is no easy feat either, often my limbs were stretched all the way out, holding onto a tiny ledge with two fingers while my foot blindly tries to find the next ledge. I have no idea how people shorter than me do it.

A lot of scraped knees later, I passed through. Felt like it took forever but was maybe 2 hours. One cool thing (literally) is I saw ice under the boulders that you might be able to just make out in the photos.

The rest of the day was a long uphill, very standard climb now. I was hoping to make it to the next Lean-to but just didn't have enough time. Plus it was forecast to rain in the afternoon, so I pulled into Full Goose Lean-to (no idea why it is called that).

It is interesting that the lean-tos have variations. This one does not have the beam running along the front, nor a metal roof. It is also the highest capacity lean-to that I've seen so far. It also has a low roof at the front that I kept banging my head on.

The other notable thing about this site is the huge number of tent platforms. 8 in total, including 2 high capacity ones. A truely ludicrous amount. Plus the ultra-high capacity lean-to. I don't think there is even enough people in the world to max this place out. If ever you need to evacuate a city, Full Goose Lean-to and Campsite is the place to relocate everyone.

Set up my tent and settled down for the day. The rain swept in a few hours later and is still going now about 6 hours later. A lot of flies came to visit me and are now trapped between the fly (heh) and the inner tent. Their constant buzzing is annoying but there is no easy way to remove them.

Going to try to get straight out of bed tomorrow morning!

Start: Tent site (unnamed?)
Finish: Full Goose Lean-to
KMs completed: 4.3Läs mer