Date: 2015-04-25
From: Petites Gap

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: light rain

4/25, Punchbowl Shelter, 20.4This may have been the hardest day on the trail this far, and tomorrow is yet to come. The low temperature last night was near 40 degrees. My summer sleeping gear is OK to 40 degrees. I slept OK last night and woke early this morning, just in time to hear the first drops of rain land on my tent. Rain was forecast for today with a 20% chance, increasing as the day went on. We had some sleet with light rain on he mountain this morning just to make packing up interesting. The challenge is packing the backpack inside the tent so everything that needs to stay dry, stays dry. My tent is wide enough for my sleeping bag, and long enough to store a few things above my head. Bringing my backpack into that restricted space is a challenge to say the least. I managed it though, and just as I got out to take the tent down, the rain subsided for a time. I guess it was good practice for next time, which will probably be tomorrow morning, but thats getting ahead again.We started on trail, uphill at 8:30 today. We ( Maverick and I) originally planned to make punchbowl shelter some twenty miles, but with rain and a big climb in the afternoon we decided to plan as we hiked. We hiked the first 7 miles to the next shelter and stopped for lunch at 11:45. By this time we had experienced rain, sleet, winds and a casual walk across the longest foot travel only bridge on the AT. The James River Foot Bridge spans the James river specifically for the AT and stretches at least 200 yards. We were exhausted from the previous long day, cold hiking in mid 40's temperatures, and the rain just kept coming. We debated staying at the shelter, but hat would leave us a huge climb, and over 20 miles tomorrow into a hostel. We hiked on.The climb was just over 1900 ft in two miles. We moved very slowly and it seemed to go on forever but we finally made the top. By then, though, we were wet, cold and exhausted so we decided to hike until 4 pm and then look for a campsite. There was no way we felt we could make the 800 ft climb over Bluff Mt to get to Punchbowl shelter. We hiked on and soon it became clear, there were no campsites on the ridge. To make matters worse, the temperature dropped into the high 30's and the wind drove the rain sideways as we hiked. It was miserable. We reached the base of Bluff Mountain at 4:30 and decided we would hike over and camp as soon as a site appeared, or at Punchbowl. We arrived at Punchbowl shelter at 6:00 pm. The rain had let up for the past hour so we were relatively less wet and wanted to get in our dry clothes and warm up as soon as possible. We knew we would be pitching tents, which are warmer to sleep in than the shelter, so we hurried to get in and dry before the rain started again. Sure enough, as soon as we tossed in the last few items and started to crawl in, the rain returned.I got settled in with wet clothes in bags and dry clothes on and set up my sleeping mat and bag. For dinner I decided to eat a lunch wrap, a protein bar, some extra cheese and a snickers. I didn't want to cook in my tent vestibule, although I heated water for a cup of warm cider. It feels like temps will be a little colder tonight so I am sleeping in all my clothes, wrapped up as warm as I can get. I will let you know tomorrow how things went. Silverback