The Boys with Endurance shuffled along the trail at a comfortable 3-miles per hour. They weathered the rain, a shoe-sucking mud trail, heavy packs, and blister-less wet feet with grace. At Mile-12, "g" had a mild melt down when he unexpectedly learned that Fast John had tossed his mini bear proof food canister to lighten his load. Surely, they would have no food for breakfast and carb-gels to run-out with. With an endurance trek of this nature which burned calories at the speed of light, should the cupboard be bare in the morning, they would be compelled to walk the remaining 17 miles instead of running.

Their lean-to was occupied at Mile-16. But friendly folks (not accommodating enough to give-up their shelter) suggested the possibility of an empty roof one half a mile off their course. (This upped their weekend training run to 33 miles!) Upon arrival at the vacant dwelling, it was timne for warm/dry clothes and socks! While Fast John collected wet fire wood, "g" began hydrating vegetables for dinner and eventually started a fire by torching the wet, fire retardent teepee of little twigs in the fire pit with his butane powered cooking stove.

For dinner, "g" treated Fast John to some dehydrated, backcountry gourmet cuisine as only Chef DeBoot Blister could deliver. They dined on Basmati rice with smoked/cured turkey, snow peas, carrots and mushrooms in a cheesy Alfredo sauce. It was at dinner time when Fast John realized he had tossed his plate and eating utensil along with the food canister. So he mustered up the nerve to disinfect an old, rusty and dented frying pan found under the lean-to by boiling H2O in it. They did eat well!

After dinner the Boys with Ultra Sole mused about their first 16.5 mile day of fast-packing. As their fire began to die down and they were readying for sleep, it started to snow before turning to freezing rain for the rest of the night. Nevertheless, The Boys with Soggy, Swollen and Wrinkly Feet were warm as fireflies in a mayonnaise jar on a hot summer night as they curled up in their down bags. P.S. Fast John solved their food storage problem by taking the 6-ft nylon cord off "g's" water purifying bottle, tying it to a Zip-loc bag containing their breakfasts and trail gels for the next day, and lowered it into the outhouse latrine pit. They successfully calculated their food would be safe from bears, raccoons, and the like! (It was, and we at G-WeB weren't surprised! Geez... we wouldn't have eaten it either!)