It was 7a when I woke up and rolled over. Warthog was also awake and our eyes met. Dang it! That means he’ll try to get me moving for the day. Without fail he said, “Ready to get up?” I told him I wanted to sleep in until 7:30a at the very least. It wasn’t really a, “May I?” It was more of a, “This is what I’m doing”.
It was raining when we were breaking down camp. I wasn’t too disappointed because I had been expecting it. We got ready and moved over to the shelter to get out of the wetness. Around 9a we finally hit the trail. Our mission today: find Snow Monkey and Wonder Woman. Warthog and I were the first of our group to leave. We checked every campsite until finally, about 3.5 miles down the trail, we found them. Warthog first recognized their tent, then we saw their water bladder. We called out their names. In response, two heads poked out of the awning. Our mission was complete, we found our friends! I had theorized that they overshot getting back on the AT from the Creeper trail. But they never took the Creeper. They hiked the AT from town, but didn’t think we stopped at the shelter so they kept on walking. When night started to fall, they figured they had passed us. So they set up camp. I was going to leave a note at the sign for the shelter, but Warthog said it wasn’t necessary. Next time I will. You can never have too much communication.
A little farther down the trail Kirby caught up to Warthog and I. We were sitting eating our breakfast protein bar when he arrived. Then the three of us continued on the trail for another few miles. We took a break at a shelter for lunch. By then, the rain had stopped so we hung out the tent to try to dry it out. The rest of the gang joined up while we were there: Atlas, Lotus, Snow Monkey, and Wonder Woman.
We had some pretty good ascents after lunch. My legs burned from the consistent push upwards. We played the alphabet game as a group, sang a jody that Army veteran Kirby adapted for hiking, and made conversation in general. It’s fun to hike as a group. 1) You are motivated by the others to push yourself harder. 2) There are more people to fill the air with conversation, which keeps your mind occupied.
While we were hiking we saw a nest in the side of the hill, right next to the trail. I didn’t see the bird, but Wonder Woman saw it fly out of the nest. There were five small eggs inside it. The whole thing was hidden by plants. It was exciting to see. I wish we had gotten photos of it, but the camera was packed away because of the bad weather.
That afternoon we climbed a mountain up into the Grayson Highlands and the cloud that was covering it all. We crossed a bald, walked through some gorgeous forests, picking our way across boulders.
Just before camp the rain started up again. Warthog and I huddled together until there was a slight lull and then quickly set up the tent. Almost as soon as we had finished putting in the last stake, the rain intensified again. We both dove in and finished setting up the inside of the tent, trying our best to keep things as dry as possible. Already the floor was damp from the night before. The rainfly was also saturated, so water droplets would occasionally drop down on us. Once camp was set up we snacked. We rested on our sleeping pads while it stormed outside. It even hailed. When all was over the group yelled at each other through the tents to make sure everyone was okay. Then when the break seemed to be sticking, most got out and walked around a bit. Warthog went and got water. I stayed back and made dinner; a ramen bomb (ramen noodles with instant mashed potatoes mixed in).
We hiked a total 14.7 miles today. A respectable distance considering quite a lot of it was uphill. Tomorrow we are shooting for 16 miles. It will be a big day for us. We will get to see wild ponies, something I’ve been looking forward to this whole trip. Plus, we will hit our 500 mile mark! We are hoping for good weather. The miles look easy. If we have all of that plus good weather, it’ll be a glorious day. Now to get ready for all the excitement, I need to sleep.
– ansel