We had scheduled a shakedown at Mountain Crossing Outfitter when they opened at 9 this morning, which meant we could sleep in, which means we overslept (a bit). Lone Wolf, who owns Blood Mountain Cabins, told me where to drop the key if we wanted to leave before 9. When we met Lone Wolf yesterday, he was a little gruff but I eventually got him to talk about the place and he warmed up. Since his arms were twice the size of my thighs, this was definitely someone I wanted to be on his good side. He’s not the kind of mountain I would like to fight because, no doubt, he would get hurt from slipping in my blood and banging his head. I couldn’t live with the guilt.
Bunny and I did our own shakedown last night and, combined, we sent home over 7 pounds of gear we could live without. After the Smokies we will be able to send another 10 pounds home with Pam and Joyce. While we were shipping the gear, we met another couple that are thru-hiking. Lucky 59, who was born in 59 and is 59. Makes you want to think about hiking the trail in 2038. Her husband is Pepper Pot, named after a popular dish in Guyana where he is originally from. This is rumored to be the same dish Jim Jones liked to wash down with cool-aid.
After sending the gear home, I called the Amicalola Falls visitor center to get our starting position numbers. W were expecting it to be less than Lotus’ since he started the day after we did and I think he was under 50. I was told they only register the “after hours” registrations once a week and today is the day. Instead of being in the 40s, we are 150 and 151 which will make us look faster when we get to Harpers Ferry.
It was another rainy and miserable day. There was fog all morning and the wind was blowing making for miserable walking (don’t worry, still better than a tire plant). My right knee was already acting up with the pain fluctuating between a 3 and 7. I took ibuprofen and rubbed voltaren on it but it just wouldn’t ease completely up. I just wanted to make it through today so I could stretch it well tonight—I know it is just a soft tissue issue. After a couple thousand mg of ibuprofen and lunch it finally eased up; I just hope I don’t have blood in my stool tomorrow. Coincidentally? it eased up after we ate lunch. Could this just be my body’s new way of telling it’s hungry?
We played leapfrog with Lucky 59 and Pepper Pot all day. The rain finally let up late this afternoon, so we got to finish our walk to the shelter in sunshine and high wind. Storms are definitely on the agenda for the night.
We also came across a young family out walking. Justin, Samantha, and two of their sons, Caden and Jake. We got to talking with them (Caden has his second adult tooth and has another loose one). They take their kids out for walks every week and just recently got a TV after years without. They think spending quality time with the kids is more important than being connected all the time. It turns out, they’ve got another 2 kids at home (I think the lack of TV might have had some play in here). They were a great family. Justin offered me a leatherman to take on our hike to Katahdin. He and his brother did about 1/4 of the trail a few years back but it will be some time before he has another opportunity. I am constantly amazed by the generosity and friendliness of the people we meet when we are out hiking. It really restores our faith in mankind.
When we finally got into the shelter, there was a huge group out front. There is a troop of Boy Scouts from Savannah, GA doing a prep hike for Philmont. I wanted to talk for a while but Bunnny was getting impatient about the impending rain. When we tried to pick out a site to set up, her impatience gave back seat to her indecisiveness of location. We ended up setting up camp about 2 foot from a stream (because it’s a weekend, the shelter is full and all flat sites are taken). If it rains a lot, we hope it stays below the rim of our bathtub liner or we might make an extra trip downstream tonight.
As we cooked super up at the shelter, we got to talking with everyone about their plans. There are about 10 guys up there just out doing a weekender of hiking. Patches is staying in the shelter with them. Somehow, we mentioned some of the trips we did last year and several of the guys were interested in the Camino. We hung bear bags and just made it into the tent before the rain started. We hoping it’s not a gully washer since we are in the gully.
EFG