GCN turned over a new leaf today and woke everyone up early trying to regain our trust. In Chip’s defense, he worries a lot about keeping people awake at night because he, rightly so, has been accused of snoring. Let he without reverberations be the first to shake others awake. Even I have been accused of snoring when I’m sure they were hearing Bunny. We all have earplugs if we need them.
Staci picked us up and returned to the scene of the old devils with evil eyes. Truth be told, they are just a little bit older than Bear. If all goes according to plan, there will be four 55 year olds and one crusty Bear summiting Katahdin when we finally make it. We made it a point to not sit at the same table we sat at two days ago. They didn’t show today so we crammed 5 people into a little corner table for no reason other than being scared of a group of retirees in just slightly worse shape than our group. Blue hair is frightening to those only having white.
Bear read his daily news digest and reported that there were three mass shootings across the US yesterday. A banner day even for us. But then he followed it up that there was only 2 deaths and a half dozen critical injuries between the three of them. Please! Don’t waste my time on amateurs. The news media shouldn’t even bother reporting if there’s less than 10 deaths. Chip pointed out that there was a line behind me when I stated this but I don’t see how that could be possible since my back was up against a wall. But I will concede sitting in a gas station in a gun crazed backwoods is probably not the best location to make such statements. Also, I’d like to point out that I DO have all the answers if someone would just ask.
On the drive back to the trailhead, Staci told us that she saw a moose after dropping us off yesterday. This got our hopes up on the drive in today. Coming around a turn, there was the biggest bull moose I have ever seen (this being my second). Staci stopped so I could get my camera and produce evidence, but by the time I was ready, he had already headed into the woods. I tried to follow him but he disappeared as soon as he went in. I’m pretty sure this really happened even though, once again, we have no evidence.
GCN agrees to go the right direction today without argument. It felt right to me as well. Im going to put the failure of yesterday out of my mind. It was foggy from the get-go as we climbed up Spaulding Mountain. The more elevation we gained, the more the weather deteriorated. By the time we reached Spaulding Mountain Lean-to many, we needed a break from the rain. We ducked in and another four sobos came in from the wrong direction (from our perspective, but sobos do everything backwards). It was too windy to use my umbrella so I needed a break from the rain.
Not very far after the Spaulding Mountain Lean-to is the AT completion marker. Two significant things have happened at this location: 1) the Appalachian Trail was officially completed on this spot in 1939, and 2) every thru-hiker that has ever passed this spot asks “can we quit since this is the completion point of the AT? We’ve already walked from GA to ME and this was the end, aren’t we done?” Thru-hiker sense of humor is not an area that deepens over the course of 2000 miles.
Since is was raining steady, foggy, and windy, we decided to skip climb to top of Sugarloaf Mountain. When we came around to the west side of the mountain, we were hit with gale force wind. It was seriously scary. GCN has worked with FEMA and he estimated the winds in excess of 70mph. Walking along the open cliffs,the wind caught my pack cover and nearly twisted me off of the mountain. We had to use our poles to keep from being blown into the mountain. In the dangerous open areas, we passed singly but kept together as a group. We had three sets of open cliffs to pass in these winds.
The trail drops down fast and we were glad of that. By the time we dropped just 500’ the wind and rain had let up. With a little over a trail mile to go and on the leeward side of the mountain, GCN made the call to Stratton Hotel (Chip’s phone provider buys him a lot of forgiveness with not waking us up in the morning). By time we got to the bottom, the sun was shining and all was calm. We had a short 1/2 mile road walk to get to the pick-up point.
Papa Smurf met us on the road walk out. We had heard Papa Smurf was at Angel’s Rest in Pearisburg, VA. As with most trail names, there are two Papa Smurfs this year (but only one Easily Forgotten). Our gear was already at the hotel when we arrived and Staci had reserved us two private rooms telling them to take good care of us when we arrived. We got settled in, cleaned up, and rested before heading to the hotel across street where Papa Smurf also cooks. He has decided to over-winter in Stratton this year where he will manage one hotel, cook at another, and rent gear at Sugarloaf Ski area. Stratton is not a big town but it is welcoming to former thru-hikers like Papa Smurf who finished his thru-hike almost 2 months ago.
EFG