Date: 2012-05-21
From: Chestnut Knob Shelter

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

The girls got up at the crack of dawn and by the time I even peaked my head out of the hammock, they had their two packs loaded up and were ready to roll.  I can tell they feel like they are slowing me down but really, I need the regulation sometimes.  I will generally push myself to the point where things break so its actually nice to roll a little slower and hike fewer miles.  Plus, it is also nice to see them cleaning up their game and get more efficient on the daily chores.  You can't be perfect on your first couple of days on a trail since you don't know what to expect but they are putting it together quickly and you can easily say I am impressed.  I got a pretty late start, finally hiking out at 10:20am.  I ate breakfast in the hammock and Idon'tknow, who I met at a previous shelter prior to the night hike, walked by and offered me a few Snickers bars.  We talked for a good hour and he went on to clean up the shelter area, pack out trash, and other generous deeds.  He's on a motorcycle and living in the area after his thru-hike last year so he's out being social and helpful, giving back to this community.  There was a big downhill portion to a road and water but it looked skeezy so I hiked on.  The water source was a rusty pipe coming out from under a road.  There was water a few miles up and I figured I was fine until then.  I ran into the big group and I told them how I was chasing the girls today hoping to catch them by lunch.  Downhill gave me a stern look and said, "Looks like the table is on the other foot now, huh?!". We all got a good laugh in at my expense and I took off north continuing my walk along a high ridgeline surrounded by big silver maples.  I saw Sleepy the Arab with a huge pack heading south on a section hike, my guess was 58lbs.  This guy had a ton of stuff.  P-Mo later guessed 65lbs and she is really good at that game.  We talked distances and since everybody remembers two women and a dog on the trail, he gave me an estimate of how long it would take to catch them.  I assumed it was high since he is out on a section, packed heavy, and was going uphill.  I cut it in half in my mind and thanke him for the info.  I arrived at what may have been Garden Mountain.  It was a big rock outcropping with the best views of the day.  The mileage seemed off forbit have been Garden Mountain but the geodetic marker was stamped with "GARDEN" adding to the confusion.  I decided to make a few sandwiches up on the rock.  There was a climbing anchor up top and I thought about clipping my 12-gram biners and single-braid dyneema to it just for fun.  Taylor and Patches eentually showed up from the big group and later, Merriweather and Junebug introduced themselves.  They are sisters out on a section and we all talked for a spell.  As it turns out, I had seen Junebug's daughter play fiddle one time.  She is in a ban called The Tresspassers and have played regularly in Tahoe and Yosemite.  Merriweather told us about som trail magic ahead about ten minutes.  The words 'cold lemonade' was all it took to get me moving.  I got there in less than five minutes and saw P-Mo, Anna, and Baxter enjoying the spread.  There were hardboiled eggs with bible verses on them plus a handy look-up table to reference.  I picked my two favorites and enjoyed the thoughtful gesture.  The rest of the day was full of rolling hills and we stopped at a skanky but famous little shelter.  This shelter is famous for having a privy with no walls!  Jenkins could have been quite nice but some irresponsible hikers had left two grocery bags full of trash hanging from the rafters.  It was all thru-hiker garbage too.  No wonder there were reported issues with wildlife here.    I almost moved on since this was the shelter that had the bear attacks.  But it was supposed to dump overnight and we all had spots inside if we wanted.  I took a poll and convinced everybody that we needed to do something about the stinky trash.  We could pack it out in the morning or burn it right now and not face a repeat of the bear incident.  Everybody felt remorse over the burn but it was the only way to fix the hiker equivalent of Chicago's Broken Window Theory.  It burned and I let the fire die out.  I went down to the creek to get cleaned up and came back for a delicious meal of hopped-up Mac n cheese.  The girls cooked together and Anna made a lemon pie thing that had a crunchy Oreo topping.  It was a disaster.  All of the flavors were in conflict and we voted to see if Baxter would eat it.  I felt bad for him but he is just as desperate for calories as we are and he didn't seem to mind.  The rain came just after 9pm an it came down hard.  All night it pounded the shelter with a steady deluge.  Anna and I remained dry but I wondered how P-Mo and Baxter were doing out in the tent and hammock. The thunder was intense and I had to hide my eyes in my sleeping bag to shield them from the frequent zaps of lightning illuminating the dark, wet night.  One lone hiker came in after midnight and set his tent up in front of the shelter.  Anna woke me up and pointed but there wasn't anything we could do.  He sounded miserable setting up in the pouring rain after a long day but this hike is full of decisions.  You learn very quickly that miles are arbitrary sometimes and laying up at a shelter is often worth it prior to a storm.  I plan to talk to him in the morning and find out what happened.