Date: 2003-05-15
From: watauga rope swing

To: Abingdon Gap Shelter
Miles today: 31.0
Weather: light rain

At some point in the night I awakened to the sound of thunder. It was a soft rumble and was some ways off. I heard Snot Rocket, Stonehenge and Wigglestick stirring. I thought about what i had to do to be ready to leave and it wasn't much. Maybe if i ignored it, it would go away. It didn't. Some minutes later i heard the soft patter of rain on the leaves overhead. I sat bolt upright and said that's it and just like that Bucky, Wigglestick and I were out of our bags packing up as fast as possible, a couple minutes later it was really raining and we were walking. Stonehenge had set up his tent right in the middle of the trail and Snot Rocket went a little ways down to set up his tent. The three of us started walking. We reached the Watauga Dam at the end of the lake and it started to get light out. We stopped for a long break since the rain had stopped and threw rocks at the dam for some reason. There was a climb after that point and i did it very slowly, how was i ever going to make 41 miles at this pace? We reached a spring about four miles later and stopped to make a cup of coffee and eat breakfast. An hour later Snot Rocket caught up to us since we had moved so incredibly slowly and taken long breaks. We waited there another good 45 minutes and moved on. This time the pace was where it should be and we moved along another two miles and reached the first shelter. We stopped to read the journal and eat again. An hour later we were still there, we figured out that from about 5 in the morning to noon we had made it seven miles. Pathetic. On top of that it started to thunder and we put on pack covers. I decided to walk without a raincoat and rainpants and that was a bad call. The rain rolled in fiercely and it was a drenching one. It took about a minute for me to realize that water was getting in my gaiters and my boots were soaked. Then the ice started raining down. I had no rain protection so i was getting bruised up. God is mad i screamed, no one does 41 from the rope swing its impossible. Still i pushed on and made it to the next shelter by about two in time for the rain to stop. We stopped and took off our boots to ring out the socks and let our feet dry out. This was how you got bad blisters and messed up your feet. We were still about four miles from the halfway point and we were very wet and a little fatigued. Stonehenge finally caught back up to us as he had slept in. He moves incredibly fast. We moved along and finally was at halfway. We let out a half hearted cheer and moved along to the next shelter a few more miles away. It was jam packed with a college class who was studying religion and pilgrimage by doing a hundred miles on the AT for credit. Why couldn't i have taken that class? We found out that Taba was here and he was still moving along. Rover had apparently stopped to sleep. We waited around for a good couple hour break to wring out our socks and dry the feet again. There is nothing worse than putting on sopping wet socks and putting your feet into the wetter boots afterward. We found out that there was a full lunar eclipse that night which was a morale boost. Darkness fell and we headed out late with still about 18 till Damascus. We walked along checking the moon. Every once in a while we would get to a clearing and see that it was slowly being covered. The moon was full so it was incredibly bright, but now it was dimming. We watched the earths shadow take full hold and the moon went from a white sliver to a full yellowish, reddish moon. It was pretty awesome for a while then the moon began to reappear as we plodded onward. At this point our pace was pretty slow and our feet beginning to cry out, worse than ever because of the wetness. At about 2 or 3 we reached the shelter ten miles out of town. Stonehenge and Snot Rocket said they would go no further and set up camp. I stumbled down the steep trail to get water and when i got back up Bucky and Wigglestick were passed out on the ground. 31 miles and 22 hours later we gave up our foolish quest and slowly set up our tents and collapsed to sleep. It was a valiant effort about eight to ten miles longer than any of our longest days.