(Daily Mi: 21.8) Storming to beat the band tonight. We are in an enclosed cabin up on an exposed knob with the shutters pulled tight.

We were tricked into hiking here by the Rev. Zigenfus. We were further deluded by the firt very easy part of the hike. Didn't start hiking unitl after 10 a.m. -- and a breakfast of hot pancakes in real maple syrup.

Flew to the 11.5 mile shelter in a little over two hours. Rev. Zigenfus had advised that the last part of the hike would b a little bony, but worth the effort.

Probably would have been if I had made it before dark.

But boy, bony was right! Particularly the last bit around Burke's Garden -- a giant, 5 mile wide crater.

Was well onto 5 pm by the time I made it to the foot of the knob, and even later by the time I had taken a useless side trip to discover a bright, orange liquid flowing at the alleged water source just before the climb to the waterless shelter.

Full on night hiking by the time I started the last two miles to the top. Need to replace the batteries in my headlamp. Hard to follow the blazes marking the path of the somewhat indistinct trailbed.

The knob cimbs maybe another few hundred feet above the rim of Burke's garden The clouds are lit by the glow of the town set in the crater and flashes of an approaching storm.

Brother beat me in by perhaps half an hour and I see the light from his lamp bleeding through the cracks in the otherwise backlit cabin at the apex of the exposed knob.

We both have just enough water to make dinner and close to nothing for moring.