Date: 2017-11-29
To: Carter Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.9
Weather: clear sky

11/29Carter Gap Shelters15.9 milesI woke up at half past the hour all night to check my watch. Apparently I was very concerned about getting up in time for my shuttle. I have read that your sleep cycle should be 90 minutes, so does that mean I never got deep sleep? At any rate I felt fine when I finally got up at 6:30. The rest of the house was dark and quiet. I ate in my room and tried not to awaken the others.  Nobody but me and Zen really had a reason to be up early. Poor Zen wouldn't have either if I hadn't needed a ride. Zen dropped me off at Winding Stair Gap and I set off into one of the nicest mornings in a long time. My standards have changed. Right now all I need to have a great morning is for my extremities not to go numb. It started out cool, but the sky was clear and blue. Within a couple of hours I was hiking in long sleeves and loving life. The terrain was very gentle, with the trail slowly rising and falling through the hills. I paced along, not really noticing time passing. I love that flow state I can get into, where time is meaningless and I enjoy effortless concentration. This was one of those mornings. Around noon I stopped at Long Branch Shelter to eat a snack. Unfortunately the shelter reeked. I've smelled more pleasant privies. No idea what has happened there. I moved along. I was excited about Albert Mountain. I've taken a bad weather detour in two different years, but today the weather was perfect. I was surprised to find its famous rocks to be a non-event. The description had made it sound like a huge rock field with technical climbing involved. Instead, scattered along the trail were several rocks you had to step down. They weren't even slippery. I was almost down when I slipped on some damn leaves. I'm really starting to get a hate on for leaves. I hit my elbow and my pelvis on a couple of rocks. Not sure what I hit my noggin on, but I felt a little loopy. I waited a few seconds to verify that I hadn't broken any bones, then pushed myself back up to standing. My vision was distorted. Everything took on a nightmarish quality. My head ached at the base of my skull. My balance was okay. I started walking, staring at distorted shapes. My headache lasted a couple of hours. My vision cleared up within a few minutes, and my other dinged up areas stopped hurting after half an hour or so. It was disturbing but fortunately not serious. Once I recovered from my fall, my hike proceeded well again. I hiked through an area of severely burned rhododendron. The ground had burned down several inches. I noticed baby rhododendron sprouts sticking up from the bases of some of the plants. It's going to take that area a long time to recover. I was pleased to see two hikers at the shelter. They're good company. Starburst made a fire and shared his starbursts. He showed me how to roast them over the fire like marshmallows. They turn out warm and soft with a crunchy surface. They were delicious!I was delighted to see Ghost Hiker again. She took some time off with family so I had gotten ahead of her on the trail. She almost never stays at shelters so I was lucky to see her tonight. It was great to hang out with her around the fire. We were all treated to an absolutely spectacular sunset tonight, and now there's a great big moon up in that clear sky.  Nature really pulled out all the stops today.  This is definitely one of my better days. I'm so happy.