Date: 2009-04-05
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: clear sky

The hiking this morning was mostly flat, which was a good way to start the long day. I got down to a little gravel road around 11am and was starving for lunch, so as the others arrived we all decided to have an early lunch. My lunch was great, and we just hung out and rested for a bit.Not too long after, Ducky and her dog Madison (a 9 year old chocolate lab mix) showed up at the road and she decided to have lunch too. Ducky unleashed Madison, who came around to each of us looking for food or crumbs that fell on the ground. Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for Madison), I left my tortillas in an open ziploc bag on top of my pack and Madison stealthily grabbed a huge chunk from 2 of my tortillas. It was funny and she is so cute that I forgave her right away. Madison then went exloring in the woods for a few minutes. Thinking that Madison had found something in the woods, Ducky called her back to the road, and Madison came running down with a shit-eating grin on her face (literally). She had gotten into some poop (we think from a person, yuck!) and had it on her collar and some on her fur. Her breath REEKED so it was clear she had some for lunch. Ducky brushed her teeth with some chicken-flavored toothpaste, but there wasn't a stream for 4 miles so Ducky couldn't give Madison a bath for a few hours. Madison came sneakily over to my pack in search of more tortillas to steal, and when I saw her next to my pack out of the corner of my eye, I cried "Noooooooooo!!!" but it was too late. Madison had brushed up against my pack and left a brown smear across the front. No one had seen her actually brush against my pack, and I didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I quietly scrubbed my pack with toilet paper drenched with hand sanitizer. Good thing I've had my hep B shots!After lunch, I was running low on water and knew there wasn't a water source for 4 miles. This was not good because it was 85 degrees, 100 percent humidity, and we had some steep climbs. I finished my water with another mile to go, and it was horrible. I was so thirsty that I started seeing mirages in the woods...a pond off in the distance, a cooler on the side of the trail filled with cold water, a running stream down below...but would really just be shadows, rocks, or logs. I finally got to the stream and chugged a liter of water and got another liter for the afternoon. Running out of water is the worst!After getting water (all the other divas also ran out of water), I left before the others and didn't see anyone else on the trail for 4 hours. Towards the end of the day, the trail followed an exposed ridgeline for a mile or so. The rugged terrain reminded me of hiking in the White Mountains in NH, and the views were great. I didn't get to the shelter until 6:30pm, and I was relieved to get there because I had convinced myself that I somehow strayed from the AT and was on some side trail which is why I hadn't seen anyone the entire afternoon. After talking with people at the shelter, I wasn't the only one who had thought that. The trail made some twists and turns today and it wasn't always clearly marked. Oh well, we all made it to the shelter after a long day.Tomorrow is another long day and I'm meeting my dad and Uncle Paul at the next shelter tomorrow evening for a few days of hiking. I'm looking forward to that!