I was talking with Hawk (one of the two late-comers) who is an ultralight hiker. He was telling me about a guy who decided to make a water bottle multiuse by peeing in it at night and drinking from it by day. This must have saved him 1/10th of an ounce. Other than being gross, the worst part was that he was just rinsing the bottle out in the same water source everyone else is drinking from. Maybe now Bunny won’t get so upset with me getting up multiple times a night if I just ask to borrow her Nalgene bottle instead.
Since we sheltered so high, we decided to walk back up for some sunset pictures last night. When we got to the ridge, we discovered two more tents and deer walking all around. After the pictures, we went back to the shelter to settle in and two deer just walked right by us.
I was a little worried about my bear bag hang last night until I got up and saw two bags just sitting on the ground. The people camped on the ridge didn’t tie their bags well and they fell to the ground during the night. Nothing inside was disturbed. When they came down to eat, they complained about the deer walking up to, and around their tents all night, keeping them awake.
The day started with a quick and easy 3 mile walk down to a road crossing, but this is where our plans took a major change. There was a sign on the side of the road which pulled me in stronger than any black hole ever could—cheeseburgers, French fries, biscuits and gravy, and shakes at a campground just a mile and a half ahead with free shuttles for hikers. I urged Bunny to call, but she didn’t have any signal.
I was losing hope but Gnome suggested we hitch. The biggest problem with this idea was the lack of traffic. I was giving up hope and ready to push on after 15 minutes without a car. We finally saw a car going in the wrong direction so I just sat down. Bunny put out her thumb, anyway, and the car stopped. Women have it so much easier than men with hitching (and just about everything else in life—except for sexual harassment, I’ll give you that one).
Walt apologized for having a dirty car and inoperable back doors, but we all piled in thanking him profusely. He dropped us off at the campground and we got a picture with him before he drove off. We should have checked if the store was open before he left because it was closed. There was a septic station next to the store for trailers to unload before hitting the road. A guy with a tractor pulled up to dump a few hundred gallons of “honey” and said he’d go find her when he got done.
Ultimately, we got great burgers, a family-sized order of fries, cokes, shakes, and a few food items to go. The whole ordeal had taken us a little over two hours before she took us back to the trail. Now we had overfilled stomachs, heavier packs, and almost 5,000’ of climbing and 14 miles of trail ahead of us. Motivation levels were dropping quickly.
Nearing the top of the first 1000’ climb, the clouds really started getting dark and threatening. We still had almost a mile to the first shelter where we could seek refuge. Bunny and I got out our umbrellas and Gnome put on his rain gear. With just 1/4 mile to go it started to sprinkle on us. As soon as we arrived at the shelter, the skies opened up. There were already 6 people there anticipating the storm.
We decided to wait out the rain at Bryant Ridge Shelter. It was only 2, so we could easily make another 6 miles once the rains stopped. The longer we waited, the worse it got. We got torrential rain, thunder and lightening, and hail. Everyone else in the shelter was certain it would be clear by 4. The three of us had a powwow and decided to call it a day and take a nap before supper.
The storm stopped at 4, everyone else left and a few others arrived and went on. At 5, another round of storms started. We thanked our full bellies for keeping us in place. Ultimately, 14 more people joined us in the shelter this evening, including Stickers, Lady Bug, and Patches. If we had pushed on, they wouldn’t have caught up for another day.
Stickers and Lady Bug had been a day delayed starting back because Stickers’ dad had a minor heart attack and had an emergency quadruple bypass. He was doing fine and told them to head back to the trail. Unless they had secretly become heart surgeons, there was nothing they could do to help. This was on Monday, so they didn’t get back on trail until yesterday and were pushing hard to catch us.
Patches didn’t have anything as dramatic happen to her. As we thought, she had been diverted to the Three Little Pigs for food in the hopes that she wouldn’t overstock on trail food. It didn’t work. She still bought a lot of food, got a really late start, and had a very heavy pack which made her go slow. She only went a few miles on Tuesday. Surprisingly, she didn’t go for the campground burgers today or we wouldn’t have seen her for a few more days.
Stickers and Lady Bug gave us the news that Vagabond Jack had to get off trail because of a hernia. Also, Dirty R and Grape Stomper pulled the plug as well because her knee just wasn’t holding up. 3 more of our friends that have been with us since mid-February are gone. Patches will be leaving soon for a wedding and she won’t catch up with us before she finishes in New York. Stickers and Lady Bug are getting stronger and faster every day; it won’t be long before we’ll lose another trail family as they leave us behind.
EFG