Date: 2018-05-31
From: Old Orchard Shelter 

To: Trimpi Shelter 
Miles today: 13.5

There were two of us in the shelter last night and it was a good night to sleep. The wind is impressive to listen to in the forest. It can be dead quite and the leaves at the top of the trees, sometimes well over 100¢ up, begin a soft rustle to let you know they¢re coming; there is typically no breeze down low at a shelter because the shelters are in a gap and the topography naturally blocks the wind. These winds can be intense and travel in pockets that can be heard from a distance. As it gets closer, of course it gets louder and will sustain the volume and even pressure until the pocket blows through and ends as suddenly as it began. Then another pocket will blow but this one may be off to the east or west with slightly less volume. This happened throughout the night and these pockets gently lulled me to sleep. Around midnight the wind settled and was replaced with rain but my attention to that was brief as I quickly drifted back to sleep. I was awaken a few times over the next couple of hours so I know it rained until at least 2:00 am and when I woke up at 3:00, dead silence. I sat up, looked outside and saw the field in the distance were several tents were pitched, was illuminated by a nearly full moon in a clear sky that stayed that way through sunrise.So I woke up to bright sunshine today, had breakfast, broke camp and headed on my way. I was to meet some people 5 miles up the trail for lunch at the Hurricane Gap Shelter. The trail was mostly downhill and moist for the first 2 miles but the sun stayed out and dried up what it could. The last 3 miles was uphill and rocky so it took me a bit longer than the first two and I missed lunch. I noticed that my bride Cathy texted me concerned because of the current weather map...Alberto is supposed to be coming this way. I had a signal so while I was alone, I took the opportunity to FaceTime her. I love seeing and talking to her via FaceTime while I¢m down here. In the middle of our conversation, Renoir pulled in for lunch, he was one of the people I was to meet. Renoir is from Paris and from what I understand, is a part time artist; he paints murals and graffiti mostly but does some other drawing as well. One of which I asked him to show Cathy while I had her on the phone; it is a self portrait in his journal with black and white pen on manilla paper. Very nicely done. While Cathy was on the phone, it began to rain.After lunch the weather cleared and off I went. I had another 10 miles in mind for a total of 15. The trail was quite rocky again and I¢m sporting these new shoes that seem to be working out pretty well but they have no rock plate in the sole, meaning I feel every rock¢s sharp corner or edge and every root I step on. I now need to look for a more flat surface to step on until my feet toughen up a little more.I made it the 10 miles to the Trimpi Shelter. There are only two people whom I¢d ever met before, both of them today as they passed me on the trail. Everybody else is new and they seem to be good people; 20¢s to early 30¢s and no partiers. They¢re interested in each other¢s stories and it¢s nice to have conversations with interesting AND interested people. I¢m certain I will not be waking up with a contact buzz in the morning.Lights out early tonight as the bright sky suddenly grew dark around 6:00 pm. People finished their dinners and hung their food bags by the light of their headlamps then made their way off to bed. It¢s been raining since 6:30 and it¢s soft and gentle; there are even a number of fireflies dancing outside in the distance. Though we were all disappointed by the early darkness and sudden end to the social aspect of dinner, we are all thankful to have hiked on a gorgeous day and to take off dry shoes for a change.