After an extremely arduous hike today, the hardest I've ever done, I made it to the Gooch Mountain shelter around 6-6:30. My dinner of Ramen and Mac & Cheese was a bit of experimentation. My cook pot is not large enough to do the entire bag of M&C all at once, and even with splitting it in half, both the ramen and M&C boiled over. But, I think I have it figured out how to do it tomorrow with less water and less mess.
Early in the day, I misunderstood what someone said about lack of water near the Gooch shelter, so for most of the day, I carried 5 L (11 lbs) of water, even though there were two large streams near the shelter I could easily have filled up at. Next time, I'll make sure to look at my trail guide to prevent such misunderstandings in the future.
The bear cables were full by the time I was done with dinner, so with the assistance of one of the other hikers, I managed to get my rope properly tied up. In the process, though, I managed to rip a hole in my down coat. This was easily remedied with some tape, but it's disappointing that it got damaged so quickly.
I met Kismet and "Roasted Weiner", her dachshund who jumped into a campfire during their 2012 thru-hike. (I suggested the dog's name should be "Rocket", on account of how fast they were going yesterday.)
Not sure how far I'll go tomorrow. That'll depend on how I feel in the morning and where the next shelter or campsite is.
