We ended the day just like we started it; cold (temperature below 40), in a fog (actual fog and not a mental one), and in a drizzle. From the sounds of it, one might imagine that we would rather be somewhere else than on the AT in February. I can think of two places even less appealing: 1) inside a tire plant, or 2) locked in an office being told to see more patients.
We passed an important milestone last night. As expected, the mice got a lot friendlier once the lights went out. I officially had my first mouse crawl on my head in an AT trail shelter. If I could get about 20 of them trained to run up and down my back with weighted boots, it would be a pleasant micro-massage.
I only got up once in the night and then again at 7:15 this morning fully intending to stay up. You know the conditions already, so when my wife told me to come get warm, I obliged. We got up at 9:20. It seems like all the early mornings I got up on our hiking hiatus mean nothing to my bride.
The trail today was kind of pretty. It would be beautiful in spring in another 6 weeks when the “hiking bubble” starts. We spent miles in a rhododendron forest. What was even more amazing to us is that we actually had sections of trail that were level for more than 5 steps in duration. The AT is currently 2,190 miles in length. If it were designed by French hikers, it would easily be 500 miles shorter (they are straight line hikers and abhor switch backs).
We did meet several hikers today. First were Breezy and New York; two women who will be starting their thru-hikes in April, so we plan on seeing them again in May when they pass us up. We are also sharing a shelter tonight with two men who only have 17 days allocated to get to Hot Springs, NC so we were too embarrassed to talk a lot with them since we don’t plan on being there for 5 weeks. They hiked today what we did yesterday and today. It’s a very slim chance we will ever see them again unless we have to perform emergency medicine on them.
Upon getting to the shelter today, we ran across a platoon of military guys out on a training mission. I couldn’t tell if the first guy I met was in trouble or pain—he looked like he was doing push-ups in the mud or he might have had leg cramps. Their packs tipped the scale at 70# so we had to stop whining a bit—especially when one guy was carrying 2 packs and 2 machine guns (another guy in trouble?). They said they were staying out tonight and couldn’t stay in shelters and they didn’t have tents. They were also running low on food. I told them about the abandoned gear we saw yesterday and they said it was probably some guys out on ranger training. Their check-points are so far apart that it’s easier for them to just live off the land and toss the gear they are given.
It’s raining still as we head to bed at 7:30. Pam gets mad if I say she doesn’t stay up very late, but it is hiker midnight and I am getting cold as well. Since there are so few people here, we decided to just put our entire packs in the bear boxes rather than hang them in the shelter. Last night, after I threw the mouse off of my head, he decided to get even by making a nest in my pack and leaving me some chocolate sprinkles as a gift.
EFG
Those military guys are probably ranger students in the mountain phase of ranger school.