Date: 2019-04-07
From: Mt Collins shelter

To: Pecks Corner shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: light snow

Rain started during the night. Between the intermittent showers and my earplugs the numerous snorers didn't bother me. In fact I slept so well I actually dreamed for the first time on this hike. I dreamed about my wife, Sara, only she was younger, like when we first dated. It was such a nice dream I wept a little when I woke. It was only 3. Another warmish morning. All the weekenders are up early. It's still raining, and my crew is six miles behind me, so I feel no rush to get up. But I do anyway because I've been lying there for ten hours.I ask two southbound weekend hikers to carry a message to Clammy, Fast Lane and UNICEF. I also leave a note in the shelter register and a message on the ground in sticks at the turnoff to the shelter that I am moving on and will meet them at Newfound Gap. Chats-Awhile pops out as I'm finishing my stick message and we, appropriately enough, chat awhile. He's a mason from Lancaster county in Pennsylvania, 41, with two kids, light-colored beard, and penetrating eyes. His knee has been bothering him enough he went to urgent care. The doctor told him if he had to have a knee problem his was the kind to have. Something about the scapula folding over.Nearing the Gap I hike a little with Curly, who is a tall lean fellow maybe sixty with a long curly reddish-white beard. It's his first hike and the uphills are tough for him, but he puts in the miles.By Newfound Gap the rain has petered out and the clouds lift. It's very busy. People are constantly coming and going. A van from the Baptist Church is offering a ride to town. But I'm waiting on my buddies to see what they want to do. I hang out with Chats-Awhile, Curly, and Sweet Life who are waiting on a ride they arranged. A lady walks up with a white blaze shirt and offers a ride to town. She's local and came up just to help hikers. Eventually she finds some passengers. I sit on a stone wall and eat lunch next to a car from Hawaii. In a short walk I see cars from twenty different states.Two hikers exit a shuttle van. They are a man and wife from London thruhiking and have just come back from Gatlinburg. More hikers arrive from town and several others leave for town. After a couple hours UNICEF shows up. My message hot through. Fast Lane takes awhile. He took a wrong turn at Clingmans Dome and went a mile out of his way. He also got a hole in his quilt last night, so not a great morning so far. FedEx, a woman from my shelter last night, appears, along with Scrub-a-Dub and Scarecrow. Clammy finally appears as well to join in for lunch. We decide to skip town and hike out another ten miles to Pecks Corner shelter. Everyone has enough food, though UNICEF seems to be cutting it close, and wants to save money on a room. Only later do I realize I could have gotten lunch in town and come back while waiting for them. Dummy!I hike with Scrub-a-Dub, Scarecrow, and UNICEF most of the afternoon. Fast Lane takes off as usual. Stopping in at Icewater Spring shelter I demonstrate my habit of exiting the same way I entered so I don't miss any of the AT. Fast Lane and UNICEF take it as a challenge and do the same. We come to Charlie's Bunion, a rock outcropping with imposing views of the deep gorges surrounding it. I scramble out to the point for a better view. I should have vertigo, but I feel comfortable enough. Enough so that I scramble up a rock spire jutting above the overlook. Coming down is more difficult. UNICEF, the rock climber, gives me tips and says he'll make a climber out of me yet.The afternoon hike is over rolling ridges, but the tread is mostly rocky and, of course, very wet. The trail often follows a knife edge ridge with sharp dropoffs on either side. The views are fabulous, with blue mountains in the distance framed by the nearby steep slopes. Rain holds off until late afternoon. Scarecrow turns out to be a very fast hiker, determined to reach her destination. This will be their first twenty-mile day. But at one point she takes a fall and cuts her hand on a rock. They have no bandages so I crack open my kit and help fix her up. I fell myself earlier stepping the wrong way on a slick root, but fortunately fell on my soft bottom and was uninjured.We finally reach the shelter, which is a half mile off the trail, and are surprised to see Clammy here already. The shelter is very full, with almost twenty people packing in. Clammy will be sleeping on the ground inside the shelter. The rest of us search the slim pickings for tent sites. I made due with a hollow with roots in it that is at least close to level. It's supposed to rain quite a but tonight so I'm hoping the runoff won't pool under my tent. UNICEF, pitching his tent nearby, smells excrement and thinks he may have pitched over something nasty. It's a good crowd at the shelter while I make a noodle dinner. This is another bubble, mostly people who started around March 15th and who bunched up at NOC and moved north together. We chat with Double Stuft - who has two puffy jackets - and Kiwi, a girl from New Zealand. UNICEF starts my climber training with board hangs from the shelter roof rafters. I have nothing near the finger strength needed. Torrential rain showers hit the covered eating area several times. Eventually dusk approaches and we take advantage of a lull to get in our tents. Tomorrow we'll near the end of the Smokies.