Date: 2015-10-28
From: Cove Mountain Shelter 

To: Wilson Creek Shelter 
Miles today: 13.8

It was a long, windy and wet night. It was kind of eerie listening to the wind howl all night and waking up to the same. I waited until I stopped hearing branches breaking and hitting the roof before I ventured out. Last night I had propped my cooking pot up on the picnic table with rocks in the hopes that I could collect some rainwater to filter and drink. The wind was so strong that it blew it off the table and down the hill on the path to the privy. If I hadn't needed to use the privy this morning I wouldn't have found it. This privy was spectacular, and I wish I had found it last night because I would have slept in it. Seriously, I give it a ten out of ten privy rating. It was new, clean, spacious and smelled of wood with no fowl odor. I would have been warm and dry and snug as a bug in a privy. Kudos to the Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Association for all the awesome trail maintenance. Today I wore my wool base layer shirt under my rain jacket all day because it was that cold. I also wore my rain pants and new thin gortex mittens. The mittens get wet and my hands sweat in them, but I am very happy with them, and they definitely help with the cold and wind. I experimented with taking them on and off to see if I notice a difference and even when soaking wet my hands are warmer. I can wear these over my regular gloves as well for more warmth.After three miles I was very happy to find a stream, and I gulped down one liter and filtered two more to carry so I would be well hydrated to make up for last night. All this was done with rain pelting me in the face and in all directions of my body. I didn't want to have to stop and fetch and filter water again if it was going to rain all day. Thankfully I had made up a couple tuna tortilla wraps at the shelter and ate one at this stop. My pack cover doesn't seem to be doing any good in this downpour. There's not much to say about today except it was very wet and cold. My high spot was finding a garbage can at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I knew from my guidebook there would be two more so I waited to dump my garbage in case the rain let up. At the second garbage can I was elated because the rain had slowed to a sprinkle AND I found two very comfortable large rocks on the trail near the garbage can that met my height requirements.  The smaller rock was to rest my pack. The height is particularly important for this rock because it is also used to hoist my pack onto my back which after five months is still not easy for me. The second rock was my resting spot, and I used the extra space to dump everything out of my food bag to find what interested my taste buds and nutrition requirements the most. I decided it was cheddar cheese and wheat thins, and three finger licks of peanut butter. The finger licks are because I dropped my broken in half spork between the cracks on the floor of the nicest shelter on the AT a couple days ago and couldn't retrieve it. The spork was broken in half because when I had to night hike in Maine through mud and rebar on huge slabs of wet granite I ate in the shelter when most hikers were asleep and my hiking partner somehow sat on it and broke it in half. I digress, but these are some of the things that go through my mind during the day. The climax to the high point of my day is that when I dumped all my food out on the rock and started slicing cheese the sky opened up with a roar of thunder and more pelting rain that stung. The timing was almost comical, and I just sat in the rain and took care of business like I did this all the time in these conditions. After collecting every ounce of garbage I had I walked to the can and happily deposited it. These trash cans are a luxury to hikers. Even if it's just psychological my pack always feel lighter after throwing away garbage.  Luckily I am the only one at this shelter because I immediately stripped all my clothes off because they were soaking wet from the rain.  Everything was so wet I had to wring it out and toss it into a garbage bag.