Date: 2003-04-30
From: Standing Bear Farm

To: Brown Gap Campsite
Miles today: 10.1

Well, it was very hard to leave the farm today...sleeping in a bed last night was quite a luxury. I had a bed that had a patchwork velvet coverlet...and many of you know how I feel about velvet!! But, we have miles to go...so, I got up and got packing. Dutch, Cruiser and I all had microwave cheese and sausage buscuits for breakfast. I supplemented mine with a Mountain Dew. I realized that I prefer the taste of Mello Yello to that of Mountain Dew, and wished that I'd chosen that... Oh, well, live and learn. Then it was saying goodbye to those who were possibly staying another day (Reason, Very Small Animal, Mr. Pumpy, Toby), and hitting the trail again. It seems that anytime we are leaving a town or hostel, the only direction to go is up...why do you think that is??? It seems entirely unreasonable, if you ask me! So, we headed up, and up. It really wasn't that bad...a graded incline. We should always be so lucky. A few people who were hiking ahead of us saw a rattlesnake on the trail. Not the first one to be seen over the past few days...Laffy Taffy almost stepped on one coming into Davenport Gap. I haven't seen one...just a baby snake, which I suppose could have been one. I tried to get it to move off the trail by poking in its direction with my trekking poles, but it wouldn't move. I then tried throwing some pebbles in its general direction, but that didn't work either. I didn't feel comfortable stepping over it, so I went around the tree that it was near. Laffy Taffy saw me, and couldn't figure out what I was doing. She hadn't seen her snake at that point...Anyway, today was a non-snake day. We did have a surprise in store nonetheless. Although we started out in beautiful, hot, sunny weather, apparently there was a chance of a thunderstorm.   When it started to spit rain, I was with Allison, Jay and IB. We were trying to find water, and the bugs were getting really bad. Allison said "Come on rain!" And apparently that's all it took. As soon as we put our packs down to fill up our water bottles, the sky opened up. The thunder and lightning wasn't too bad at first, but grew more intense as I got near a shelter. I was happy to duck my drenched body under the lean-to's roof. I ate lunch with Dutch, while waiting out the storm. Unfortunately, one storm seemed to be following another. We decided that if we were to get any miles under our belts, we would have to get going. Not the most thrilling prospect, but it comes down to the fact that we are going to have to walk in weather...and not all of it is going to be sunny (in!sert recording of "Stormy Weather" here...). The storms actually seemed to be tapering off...then we stopped where we had originally planned to. We talked about getting water and moving on another 4 miles. Then, another storm moved in. It was absolutely pouring. Dutch told me that Cruiser had said she was also going to try and do the ten miles, so we decided to stay here. Dutch had put up his hammock's rain fly, so we ducked under there to wait out the worst of the rain. Alison, Jay and IB got water and headed up the trail...I wished them good luck. Then from the blind side of the fly, we heard Cruiser...she had made it...good. We waited till the rain had subsided a bit and set up our tents. Then we proceeded to cook dinner...most interesting in the rain. Finally, there was nothing else to do but hit the tents/hammock. It was only 6:30, though!! We're hoping that the rain will stop before tomorrow so we can do a big miles day...at least 15. But, it really does!n't matter what the weather is...hike we must! Hot Springs...here we come!!