Well, I had hoped to be on the trail by 7:30a. It was 8:15a when we left. 6:30a came a lot earlier than I expected and I really needed more time to sleep. I’m starting to notice a theme.
One of our first climbs for the day was Big Butt Mountain. There were 2 tall boulders with a crack down the center. Ben and I took pictures of it as we were snickering like 3rd graders. Most of the morning was easy walking. We stopped briefly at a shelter about 7 miles in. Then pushed on another hour or so.
We had high hopes for trail magic. It’s Friday (close to the weekend) and we were going to cross a busier road. Our hearts sank when we turned the corner and saw our friends sitting across the street in the shade of a tree – not in camping chairs round a vehicle, stuffing their faces. Oh well, another time then.
Since we were without trail magic, we decided to go down the trail another .5 miles and then 150 yards off of it to a hostel. They had a handmade sign advertising pizza. I expected exorbitant prices. Personal pizzas were $3, a can of soda was $1, and corndogs were also $1. Each one of us (Atlas, Hype, Kirby, Lotus, Warthog, and I) got 1 of each of those. The guy cooked all of it on the grill. It was the best $5 we’ve spent so far.
We stayed for about an hour and decided to continue our miles for the day. A storm was brewing over the mountains. We weren’t excited about it, but as they say, “No rain, no pain, no Maine”. Plus we had another 5.8 miles to go until the shelter, most of it uphill.
It started raining fairly quickly. We put on our rain jackets but opted to leave the rain pants off. We would be wet either way. One would be from sweat, the other from rain. The last 5.8 miles were fairly brutal. Mostly because my feet hurt so bad. There was thunder, but luckily we didn’t see any lightening. It was a slow afternoon. Around 5p we finally arrived at the shelter. Kirby and I shouted with glee when we saw it.
The rain had stopped and luckily our tent stayed dry in Warthog’s bag. He set up camp, I made dinner. With hiker hunger setting in, we chose to have a Backpackers Pantry (beef stroganoff) and then ate some mashed potatoes, fruit snacks, candy bars, and finished off with Reisen candies. We probably could have ate more honestly. But felt like it was a good place to stop.
Some people in the group ate their allotted lunch (since we had the pizza, etc.) and their dinner. I took a couple of benadryl with the hopes of helping my rash/reaction to the leuko tape. It’s a nasty patch that wraps the back of my heels. As if I’m not having enough issues with those.
We were all tired and crashed in our tents after dinner, carrying on conversations through the tent. An owl is hooting now. Hype said, “He’s not even finishing his sentence. He’s stuck on the one word.” I laughed and added, “Maybe he has a stutter!” Dorky, I know. But how beautiful is it that we hear owls almost nightly? It makes the rain and 5.8 miles uphill totally worth it.
Tomorrow we have 14 miles to a campsite. It’s either 10 or 20 miles to the shelters, but apparently there is a camping area in between. After that, it’s 13 or so miles into Erwin where we will spend the night at a hostel.
Tomorrow is also Saturday and we cross 2 major roads. We have high hopes for trail magic. The stars should be aligned. Can you tell that most of what we think about is food? Although honestly, it’s not all that different for me. I always think of food no matter what.
– ansel