Date: 2003-04-25
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Carter Gap Shelter
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: moderate rain

Even after the stormy night, I was able to be one of the first to pack up and take off! I realized, though, that I am in danger of running out of food, and best be careful, or I will be eating a ramen for breakfast in a day or two. I decided to mix a little bit of my apple cinnamon cereal bar with the bowl of oatmeal I had, in order to stretch out the rations a bit, and it turned out to be quite tasty! I felt sorry for one hiker, Grant, who actually had to break out a ramen for breakfast. Of course, I knew this would be coming shortly for myself. I walked down to the stream to get water, and ran into Grant once again, where he told me one of the funniest stories that I have heard on the trail yet. Apparently, he left his nalgene bottle open one night, in one of the shelters (I believe Hawk Mountain, where the mice are rampant). The next morning, he woke up to find a poor little mouse had crawled up into the bottle during the night, and could not escape...and drowned in his bottle. Of all things. A mouse committed suicide in his water bottle! Of course, I didn't ask (nor did I want to know) if he kept the same bottle, and he soon went on his way. I really enjoyed the hike to Carter Gap shelter. It was nice, and I made good time. The scenery was awesome. It was kind of foggy and steamy, and very tropical...as if one had stepped out of the AT for a moment, and landed in the middle of the Amazon. Minus all the crazy bugs. It was a good walk.I got to Carter Gap around noon, and, at first, was going to keep walking to the next shelter...but then realized that I may lessen my chances of getting a shelter spot if I continued on. So, at 12 o'clock, I decided to end my hike for the day. I was one of the first at the shelter, and got to steal a spot at the very end, tucked away from all the weather elements, and then got really bored. As more and more people got to the shelter, it appeared as if it was going to be as crowded as the night before. Fortunately, this shelter had a covered deck area, so we were able to squeeze everyone in, underneath a sheltered area. The worst part, of course, about being stuck in a shelter is that you're probably going to end up eating more food than 1 day's allowance. This is pretty much what I did. I finished up almost all of my lunch portions, had 2 dinners, and even had a nice dessert of a mocha mouse pie ( a gift from another hiker, in exchange for some bandage supplies I gave him). A few people were laughing about it, but hey - - that was less weight that I had to carry out the next day. So, we eventually all got settled in for the night, and someone else arrived, just after 8, and just before the deluge of storms. His name was Andre, and he apologized in advance for keeping us up all night, due to his snoring. I became a little worried. After all, I had not had a decent amount of sleep the previous night, due to storms. I needed a good night's rest! Alas, this did not come. Andre wasn't lying. His snores were reminisce of a bear dying...a few times we were worried that he had stopped breathing, because of the abnormal rhythm of his snores. Thank GOD the rain started soon after he fell asleep, because it drowned him out for a while. Even so, there was little sleep to be had. Oh well, off to seek asylum tomorrow!