Date: 2012-05-08
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Mountain Harbour B&B
Miles today: 9.7

I woke up to rain coming down hard on the old barn at 3:41am and thought about nothing but getting back to sleep.  I was thankful for my pitch that kept my hammock completely under the eaves.  I zipped up half of my storm shield to protect against any wind-driven rain in hopes that I could sleep until morning.  I awoke to voices upstairs and various noises (clunks, scrapes, drags, scuffles) through the floorboards indicating a general group awakening.  I was annoyed.  It was only 6:30.  Headlamps blazed while someone cooked breakfast on an alcohol stove right near me despite a complete lack of sleeping humans on the other sleeping platform.  I turned over and dove into the soft, warm world of my hammock, jacket, and sleeping bag.  I stayed there until 7:30 when people started filing out.  The group I have been hiking with for a few days left and I was munching on pop tarts.  I am mostly growing tired of this for a breakfast food.  Another group left and I was just about packed up but I waited to enjoy a few more minutes of solitude in this old barn.  I heard Unicoi upstairs on the phone with the next hostel and decided I should reserve a bunk too.  The weather was fairly rough, wind blowing big mist clouds around and rain driving sideways.. I just didn't want to try to hike down to the road, hitch in, rush to resupply, and hike some more rainy miles into the grey night.  One phone call was all it took.  I went up and talked to both Pocahontas and Unicoi for a bit and eventually bid them farewell.  I left with about a half liter of water and a little over a days worth of lunch food.  It was only ten miles to the road so I figured this would be enough to get me there.  The funny thing about hiking in bad weather is that although it is hard to get started, it is easy to keep on going once you get warmed up.  I had to pull out my rain skirt at one point and it even got into umbrella territory a few miles later.  My rain gear consists of the Packa (a jacket/pack cover/poncho), a rain skirt, and an umbrella.  11.5oz total and super versatile as long as everything is kept handy.  I failed to keep things within reach and had to take the Packa off of myself and my backpack to retrieve the skirt and the umbrella.  It was a mud fest and I gave up on trying to do it well.  I was going to be doing laundry in five hours anyway.  I hiked on and was blown away as I came across this big clearing over Little Hump Mountain.  Huge, sweeping views of rugged steel grey peaks and bright green grass against a white sky.  Clouds screamed through the saddles and across the clearing.  There was very little rain at this point and I took my hood off to get a better view.  This was repeated as I climbed up the other side of the saddle looking back.  It was stunning and I called out across the valley in awe.  Up and over revealed 5.5 miles of descent down to US19.  Gummy Bear's friend, JD, gave us a ride into town and dropped us off at the hostel.  They had a 5pm dinner shuttle that I wanted to be on.  I got a shower, went through my food and mileage planning for the next few days and sat up on the old porch of Mountain Harbour Bed and Breakfast.  I felt trapped.  I had done all that I needed to except consume a ridiculous amount of town food and resupply for the trail. I had hours to rock out on the porch on the swing and socialize with other hikers.  It felt wrong for me to be using my time in such a way.  It's hard to go from moving to idle and back again.  I got a ride into town in a car with Terry and checked out the local grocery store.  Sigh.  I went over to Bob's Dairyland burger joint and ordered The Boss.  Two patties, ham, bacon, Swiss, American, onions, tomatoes, lettuce.. They lost my ticket and I went from ravenous to critical.  I also ordered some deep fried cheese as well.  I resupplied in a better mood and even bought a kiwi. The ride back was in a pickup truck. It started to rain and I was wearing my swanky town clothes: thin nylon pants and a wool t-shirt.  It was ridiculous.  The cab was full but I shared the exposed truck bed with Big Rock, Jinx, Duck Soup, Pocahontas, Josh, and Kneef.  We were making trail memories.  50mph rain and wind in t-shirts.  Big Rock yelled out above the wind/road/rain noise, "It doesn't matter how good or bad something is, it will always change."  I added, "C'mon guys, at least it's not hail."  Raaaaii-iiight.  It started to hail within 30 seconds.  We were getting blasted.  I was sitting in the back against the tailgate facing forward and Josh held his hat out so my face wouldn't get any more beat up.  We were all shivering upon arrival and ran for the hostel.  It took awhile to get warmed up and I still can't believe it happened, but I will never forget how it felt.  The night was pretty chill and I hung out with a group of hikers talking well past hiker midnight.  I turned in about 10pm and was out despite the lights, television, and revelry.