Date: 2015-05-11
From: Camp Site near Rich Mountain 

To: Little Laurel Shelter
Miles today: 11.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Two bad days in a row the bugs were on me as soon as i popped my head out of my tent this morning. The section hikers I camped with had an 11 month old husky I loved him. Last night I was laying in my tent just to get away from the bugs and he walked his big head right into the screen. I unzipped the tent and he let himself right in and checked the place out. I would have liked to snuggle him but his dad called him out I miss my doggies a ton I was packed up by 9 but then nature called. Normally I prefer a privy but since I was at a campsite I had to tromp around the poison ivy and find a spot. As soon as I got on the trail I practically stepped on a snake. This one I got a good look at, I think he was a striped garter snake. Still. Aghhhh!!!! I am over snakes. Seriously. The trail narrowed with tall grass and poison ivy on both sides. Poison ivy called up her boyfriend poison oak and together they hid all the snakes on the side of the trail. Im a bit scared just when things jump out (which the snakes do) and Im also scared of snakes in general. What really makes me nervous is that North Carolina has six poisonous species and they could be in any of the poison plants. It took a lot for me to walk those miles. Hot, sweating, itching from the poison ivy I already had, getting bit by those freaking gnats, while freaking walking!, picking them out of my eyes, trying to move the poison ivy off the trail with my poles while at the same time trying to bang the brush with them to alert any snakies hiding in the tall grass. Jesus they were some long miles. I found a new patch of poison ivy loving life on my wrist under my watch. I scrubbed him and hung my watch on my pack. I must have looked at my bare wrist a million times today. I remembered that patch while I was wiping my butt today so we will keep our fingers crossed on that. I got to the first shelter and ran into a guy who asked how i was doing. I thought about telling him fine but instead I told the truth. I ranted and raved, yelled about snakes and bugs and poison ivy. Just went on and on. When I was done he laughed and laughed, he had a great laugh It made me feel a bit better. I hiked along and then ran into some sobos who told me there was a place at the bottom moms place that sold icecream. I hurried down. Mom's was cash only, I dug around and found 2 dollars. 2 dollars for 2 nutty buddies. Yum. The day was hot and I had 5 miles uphill to the shelter. The thunderstorm had been working itself up for a while and decided to hit when I had about a mile and a half left. The woods turned a hazy grey and then BOOM! It was right over head. The shelter was on the top of the mountain so i didn't want to get up there with the storm overhead so I took my time and the brunt of the storm. I was scared. Honest. Today is right up there with my hardest days out here. Its hard to stay positive with so many difficulties to chose from. My wet shorts made huge angry welt lines in between my butt cheeks and my boots wet through in the down pour. I sloshed very slowly into the shelter just as the storm was ending. When it stopped raining I started to put up my tent and the skies opened up again. Perfect ending. You would think the rain helped the gnat situation. Not so much. I cooked noodles and then ate them in my tent to get away from the bugs. It cooled off by alot and Im looking forward to good sleeping weather and forgetting about how much i wanted to quit today.