We now know why Three Eagles Outfitters in Franklin, NC had such a great deal on the Big Agnes sleeping pads we bought from them—the pads are discontinued and have no R rating at all. We froze our asses off last night. We tried putting our rain coats under our hips to get a little more insulation but it didn’t really help. The hot water bottle wasn’t enough to melt the ground beneath us. Cold night = sleep deprived Bunny = slow hiking with lots of complaints.
Being the fantastic, loving husband that I am, I got up early, fetched water, got the bear bags down, and made hot coffee with carnation mix for Bunny to have while she was still in the tent. I even went so far as to make her breakfast in bed (yet again) to try and place her in a better mood. As usual under these circumstances, I delivered the hot drink and food to the tent, bowed, and backed slowly away not making any sudden movements or any eye contact.
Even with my efforts to appease with my early rise, we got a late start. It was already after 9:30 which means a change in our 6 day plan to Erwin. We said goodbye to Yukon Rasputon (a local guy that was camping on the trail and greeting hikers. We met him last night as we were going to bed. He said he was up there doing magic but we didn’t find out until later that he was roasting marshmallows for hikers—-we didn’t get any, just like we didn’t get any t-shirts from Three Eagle Outfitters in Franklin, NC) and headed on to the next shelter. I was trying to avoid admitting that our plans were gone to shit.
The trail was slick and slow going, again. It was ice today. Not too far down the trail, we saw Swass and Flo holding Remmy up and working on his feet. They were only applying mush wax, but Remmy was afraid it might have been a nail cutting and he wanted none of that. Once the wax was on, he was cool.
As the trail winds around the mountains, it gets exposed to more sun in places and snow would melt completely off of the trail. After a couple of hours and about 4 miles, we came upon a section that was dry. We stopped for a snack and stayed for a nap. I slept in the trail from the sleep deprivation we experienced from the cold last night. I woke myself up from hearing heavy breathing and drool—it was a good nap. Bunny said she wasn’t enjoying the Break as much as I was and she was moving on.
We have a new plan with plenty of new justification. We have decided to cut back from 15.5 miles to 8.6 miles today. We will do 14 miles tomorrow—now the justification; we figure that Stickers and Lady Bug got a late start yesterday so they must have camped part way up to the shelter. They will also have modified their mileage for today so they will cut off the second shelter. We will regroup at Little Laurel Shelter.
We were the first at shelter well before 4. We claimed our spot in the shelter and started to get organized. A little later, an ex military guy in his early 60s named Trek arrived. He has thru-hiked the AT 8 times already and is on his 9th go. Before we were done cooking, another group of 5 people arrived running to the shelter. They had passed 19 other hikers running down the trail so they could get spots in the shelter. Two of the guys were a complaining a bit about tight tendons and other issues from long distance and fast hiking.
One of the guys said he had eaten dinner last night with Stickers and Lady Bug at Elmer’s Hostel in Hot Springs. It looks like they took another zero. The shelter area started filling up with more and more hikers. The front edge of the bubble has caught up with us. With any luck, there is a gap between the fast movers and the rest of the rabble. We’re hoping that everyone spreads out quite a bit and we can make Damascus ahead of the slow movers.
Everyone sat around talking about how amazing the experience is hiking the AT. One kid made a comment about how interesting it is that he is hanging out and becoming friends with people his grandparents’ age (while glancing from Bunny Tracks to Trek and avoiding eye contact with me). I know this is true because in a previous life we used to hang with a group of old women our grandparents’ age who would get boozed up every Friday evening—the alcohol greatly helped their normal dispositions.
EFG
Nice to see some of the old rustic shelters still standing. I particularly remember Walnut Shelter being very airy and it sounds like it still is. Little Laurel shelter is also an old favorite. I remember sour dough biscuits baked on a fire and sleeping under the stars at this one. Lovely spot.