Date: 2017-10-01
From: Walnut Mountain Rd

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

It¢s 12:30, and not the mid-day 12:30, but the mid-night 12:30. It¢s time for my first trip out of a warm sleeping bag to go pee. 12:30 and this journal entry should have been finished hours ago, not with me just starting it by my headlamp, surrounded by scurrying mice and recumbent bodies. It¢s Frodo¢s fault. Remember Rolling Thunder said way back in Maine, ¢Always blame the person who¢s not there.¢ But it really is her fault. And after three-and-a-half weeks, she really is here, asleep right beside me. (Frodo: I reject that assertion. You got to the shelter long before I did. You could have spent time on your journal then!)I was hiking at 7:10 am; the sun not making its first peek over the horizon till 20 minutes later. It was colder than it¢s been in a long time. I could see my breath. I was thankful to have my warmer sleeping bag, that I had picked up at Woods Hole Hostel almost two weeks ago. It¢s a 30-degree bag, instead of the 40-degree bag I used most of the summer. This morning I started out hiking in every stitch of clothing I have ¢ long underwear, shirt, shorts, rain jacket, everything except my spare pair of socks. I thought of my puffy down jacket I¢d sent home two months ago. I wished the trail was going uphill instead of trending downhill. ¢Zero¢(Frodo: Okay, pretend Scout is writing this earlier in the day, otherwise it won¢t make sense.)Frodo comes today!  And she¢s bringing out my down jacket; not a moment too soon.  Tonight she¢ll be at Overmountain Shelter, 19.6 miles away. The longest climb in ages, 2600 feet, will be the afternoon highlight. I power out the first ten miles. Blazer and Inyo are coming with Frodo. Blazer, six days younger than our son, hiked with us on and off on the PCT. On this day in 2007 she was there when I snapped that photo of Frodo plowing through snow that was mid-thigh deep only 40 (!) miles from Canada, after we¢d hiked 2,600 miles. Blazer was there the next morning when, for the first time in then 30 years of marriage, we both forgot Frodo¢s birthday. That morning, as we stomped figure 8s in the snow to stay warm as we waited for two of our group to pack up, Blazer shocked us when she called out ¢Happy birthday, Frodo! What do you want for your birthday?¢ Frodo¢s sincere answer: ¢I want to get out of this day alive.¢ Blazer¢s brother Inyo hiked most of the Sierra Nevada with her, which is one of the toughest sections on the PCT.The three of them, Frodo, Blazer, and Inyo, will hike in about 34 of a mile tonight and then they¢ll hike with me for a day and a half. I want them to have a real AT experience. I so hope that includes hiking with some of my AT peeps. But I fear that Dot, Franky, and any of the rest are at least a half day ahead.At ten and a half miles, near the road into the next town, Roan Mountain, I heard a shout. ¢Scout!¢ It was Aloha.  He was caught in a hamburger-and-beer vortex. A nice section hiker had been plying him with them in a campsite with a warm fire. It was already near noon and Aloha had been there since the evening before. (¢¦ scurry, scurry, another mouse just ran by in the edge of my headlamp beam¢¦) Aloha was hoping I¢d come by and pull him away. We crossed the road together and started THE CLIMB. Am I going to write about how hard and how long it was? No. We chatted our way up. Aloha, in his early 20s, told me how this hike has changed him, made him different now in so many positive ways. The climb was on wonderful trail tread, grade designed not to punish but to reward. We had lunch with nearly 2000 feet climbed, right at the Tenessee/North Carolina state line. Our 13th state.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Aloha had cell coverage and reached Dot and Franky. ¢Scout, they are two miles behind us.¢ My gosh, I¢ll have three of my AT cohort with Frodo, Blazer, and Inyo tonight. My smile, thinking of seeing Frodo in a few hours, got even broader. I phoned Inyo as he and Blazer were stopping at a grocery store. I told him there will be 7 of us tonight. He¢s going to hike in some wine.And just when the day couldn¢t get any better, a mile before Hump¢s summit we broke out of a typical AT thicket into a wide-open bald. We can see the trail for a good mile ahead. The wind whipped the amber waves of grain and low grasses. I wanted to burst out in song. We talked, excited and ecstatic. At the top, soft with lawn grass that would not be out of place at a house in the suburbs, we lay down, with our heads resting on our packs, marveling. Dot and Franky popped into view. They joined us, sunbathing in a sharp wind at 5600 feet. http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...   http://www.trailjournals.com/j...We practically flew the last four miles to Overmountain Shelter.¢It¢s the best shelter on the AT,¢ more than one had said. It¢s a big old barn. The hayloft can sleep a couple dozen. There is a view of the sunrise that can rival that of Riga Shelter, back in July.They didn¢t mention the mice. Dot jumps and shouts her version of ¢eek!¢ Sassy, fearless mice run by her and up to the rafters, tightroping the beams like a vermin version of The Flying Wallenders.In the dusk I see what I¢ve been waiting for all day, hear the voice I¢ve been wanting to hear for weeks. Hug. Big hug. Then one for Blazer and Ian. Blazer is halfway unpacked ¢ she¢d heard about the mice but was largely dismissive ¢ when she turned to her pack and yelped. ¢There¢s one in my pack! No, two!¢ She then hopped about, her pack upside down as she willy-nilly dumped out its contents. This ¢ like Frodo and Dot ¢ is one of the strongest women I know. I think that¢s why it was so funny.And then the real reward of the day. In the dark, moonlight shining through the half-inch gaps between the barn slats, sitting in a tight circle, the 7 of us joshing and telling stories, we passed around wine, the finest boxed wine, and drank it out of whatever receptacle we had. Aloha, a Gatorade bottle. Frodo and I sipped from the salsa container she had brought to serve as a bowl. We sat around the lighted pumpkin-scented candle-in-a-jar that Franky carries to be romantic. ¢Happy Birthday!¢ Blazer called. No snow this time. She pulled out a frosted cupcake, complete with candles. There were cupcakes for all of us. Frodo blew out her candles.I didn¢t ask her what she wished for this time. But I don¢t think she could have wished for a better end of the day in this circle of friendship. It¢s 1:44 am, but I can now fall into the sleep of the just, journal done. ¢Nite.