Date: 2015-10-01
From: Jenny Knob Shelter

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter 
Miles today: 35.6
Weather: clear sky

Day 110 10/01/15From Jenny Knob Shelter to Chestnut Knob Shelter for a crazy 35.6 miles plus a free 2 miles for getting lostWell at 6 both Twig and I got up in the dark. He however is no nonsense and was packed up and gone with head lamp on by 6:30. I however am not as quick and didn't get out until 20 minutes later. I knew that I had to try to get 12.5 miles down by lunch so I pushed in the morning. I typically have a better pass on the morning miles and then just before getting to my destination. Anyway I figured I would never see Twig again as he was found big miles and probably one of those 3 mph folks. But a couple hours in I had caught up to Twig. I think we are pretty closely paced I had just been pushing in the morning. We hiked together most of the rest of the day. The rain was holding off, drizzling on occasion but mostly the water was falling from the trees. Twig and I chatted about several things and he seemed like a good guy. At a about 1:30 Twig stopped to check his maps and I came up from behind, had had to take a break off trail, when he told me he thought we had only covered about 10 miles so far that day. I heard this and got freaked out because my goal was to be at 12.5 by noon. I had some huge mileage to make up so I took off like a shot. A couple miles later I realized Twig had messed up with his map reading and we only had 5.5 miles to go. I also looked at text that BLT had sent stating that I should find a place to hunker down because they were expecting huge rain fall over the next two days due to the hurricane. This started me thinking about where I could get to so I could get out of the rain. By 4:45 Twig had caught up and we made it to Jenkins Shelter. I looked at my maps and realized that if I pushed to Chestnut Shelter I could make it to Atkin the next day and get out of the rain. The only problem was Chestnut was another 10 miles after I had just done 25 and I would probably be hiking for 2 hours in the dark. I was feeling good so I decided to go for it. The other two pluses were that I would probably have reception at Chestnut and it wasn't raining now so I would rather hike when it's not raining. I asked Twig if he wanted to come along and he decided to stay put. While in the daylight the hike was not too bad but at about 7 I had to go to my headlamp and with the fog and mist it made staying on the trail tough. The trail went from a nice path to rocks that were not clearly defined. I also realized my weakening batteries didn't help the situation so changed batteries and it made it a bunch easier. At about 8 at started to light rain which made things more fun . I thought I was getting close at about 9 when I came upon some section hikers setting camping and setting up their bear bags. The trail had taken a turn and I didn't know where it went back in the woods so I asked the guy where the AT was. He said, I hoped jokingly, what kind of fool would be out hiking in weather like this. I just ignored the comment and asked if he knew where the shelter was. He in turn replied you missed it, it was a mile back. I didn't think I could have missed it and I didn't think I had hiked long enough but I knew I had to be inside tonight so I thanked him and headed back north. I hate going backwards so this was really tough for me but it was late and I wanted to be inside. I walked back up a slope for about a mile and saw nothing. I called BLT for some phone support but she could not match my location up with the shelter. So I'm the dark I download Guthook's App and realized that I was 2.2 miles north of the shelter and that I had never passed it. When I had spoken to the other hiker I had about a mile to get to the shelter. By now I was cold, wet, and angry. I hurried back down the slope, saw the guy still out with his bear bag, and told him he had given me wrong directions as I passed. I rushed up the knob to the shelter and finally arrived at 10:45. The only redeeming thing for the night was the shelter was like a fortress and I was the only one there. The shelter was made of brick and had a door. Inside the shelter was very clean and had some nice bunks. I set up my tent on a bunk had a dry dinner and went to bed. I thought I'd the rain was bad I could sit tight in this shelter with no problem.