Date: 2007-12-03
From: Wise shelter

To: Lost Mtn. Shelter
Miles today: 17.3

mi17.3sleep hammockdest. Lost Mountain Shelter day 144 Well I am kind of glad I was in the shelter last night. Around 9 or 10 pm the rain finally came. Some of it in heavy downpours. Not something that I want to hike over balds in. Today was a crazy day of hiking. One of my worst hiking days, next to Mt Washington in the whites. I was going over the Graysland Highlands. It is mostly an open bald. It wasn't raining per say. I did get some snow. But it was cold and windy. Did I mention windy. I heard later the weather forcast was calling for hurricane force winds. Well I think I had some. It had to be guesting over 50 mph. Luckily most of it was at my back or to the side. It is fun to hike and have the wind pick you up and move you. Comeing from the side was not so much fun. The wind would make my eyes tear up. I thought for sure my eyes were going to freeze. I stopped around 10:30 at the first shelter. This is the one that I would have stayed at if I had pressed on. I am really glad I stayed behind. The wind was coming right in the front. It sounded like a frieght train was going over when the wind was hitting it. I went into the corner and fixed one of the extra dinners I had. I needed something to warm me up from the inside. Once again the olive oil hardened. I had to warm it under my jacket in order to get anything out. My waterbottle was also starting to freeze. If I was using a hydration tube, it would be solid ice by now. I am glad tomorrow I am going to be in town. I really need a new fuel canister. I am using the one I found. It just barely works. I think that is why someone left it. I ate up and was headed south again by 11am. Just south of the shelter I finally saw some ponys. There are "wild" ponys that live up here. I was trying so hard to see some. The others had seem some after I went through yesterday. I only saw 2 a little ways off the trail, but that is good enough for me. Some of the people ahead talked about doing the pony challange. Not me. I have no desire to try and ride one of these. Especially on a bad weather day like today. All I can think about is getting lower and warmer. I was around 5000 feet of elevation most of the day. The highlands turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trail. I think it has been the best since VT. Only the leaf changes came close to it. I high grassy bald. It was beautiful today. Even with the bad weather I took a lot of photos. The rain had frozen along with the snow. It wasn't covering the trail thankfully. All of the plants were a shade of white. I will definitly have to get some of those photos posted. Another funny thing out here are the registers along the trail. Some of the parks have registers along the trail at trailheads and other random parts. They want you to sign in letting them know where you are in case something happens. I usually sign them. What is funny is there is a place to write down your method of trail. Given there are some horse trails. Mainly though they are on hiking trails. For the first few I wrote walking. but I soon got bored of that. It digressed to sailing, running, car, caffine, among other things. Someone in front of me put the best on in the Icky Shuffle. I had to write a huge "Who Dey?" to that. I got to the shelter just before 4pm. I saw the 3 southbounders who had been just in front of me. Along with them was none other than Catz. He got off around Pearisburg for Thanks Giving and decided to head south from here. His flip flop hike was supposed to end in Damascus. He said that he is going to hike south for awhile. I told him he would still be on the trail come Springer. Tonight was a great night of talking with some new people and catching up with Catz. I am really excited about being in town with a group of people. I haven't been in a town with a group of thru hikers since Dalton, MA. What a great town to do it in too. Damascus is probibly the most famous trail town. I was there earlier this year for trail days. Definitly taking a zero day there. I have a lot of little things to do. I also have a lot of gear to switch out or add. More on that later.