Date: 2006-04-15
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Dennis Cove Rd.
Miles today: 28.5

On the trail by 8 today and immediately start climbing up Little Hump Mountain. Not too bad of a climb but from the top you can see Hump Mountain and that climb does not look fun. The climb up Hump Mountain was very very windy. So windy, infact, that with every step forward I would take the wind would blow me about a foot off the trail to the right. It was a very slow process. The climb, however, was definitely worth it. The view from the top was spectacular.We made it to Apple House Shelter, about 8 miles into our hike, at about 11am. Also found some trail magic of drinks in the stream, so I helped myself to a coke. Dirt, Senator and I also met up with Freight Train and Night Rider there and they decided to hike with us as well. Shortly there after Senator started to feel sick so he hung back and was gonna take it easy and wait up for Freefall and Novocaine.During the the next section of the trail we kind of made up our own blue blaze route. We decided to hike along a road as opposed to taking the trail. The trail hike was about 7 miles and our road hike was about 3 so we cut off about 4 miles of trail. The road hike was fun though and we actually got to stop and talk to some of the locals, which was very interesting.Once on the trail again the next bunch of miles were smooth as silk. Not many ups or downs and great trail. When we got to the Moreland Gap Shelter, however, we all felt like crap. We had already hiked about 21.5 miles on the day and were both very hungry and thirsty. So we rested up there for about an hour before moving on.We knew that much of our remaining 6 miles of hiking would be at night so we took our time. Time seemed to fly by however, because we talked almost the whole time about a variety of subjects...actually we mainly just talked about girls, but the conversation proved to both fun and entertaining. We got to the Kincora Hostel right at 10 o'clock and were greeted by other hikers who offered us the left overs from the food they had made earlier. It was perfect. I also got to take a shower and wash the stinkiest of my clothes. There are about 18 other hikers here at the hostel and about 10 of them I had never met before tonight.Tomorrow we are gonna try to get out of here by around noon and hike about 10 miles or so. That will then set us up so we can try to hike 40 miles into Damascus on the 17th. We have been told it is possible so we want to try. (When we mentioned this idea to Miss Janet she told us it was both possible and stupid. Sounds right up my alley. :-) )Something interesting I have been kind of thinking about for the last few days is the diversity on the AT. And when I say diversity I really mean lack thereof. To put it lightly, there are lots and lots of White Males on the trail. The Appalachian Trail Conference says that about 30% of all thru-hikers are female... but since I have only met about 20 women and met somewhere around 200 guys, I am beginning to seriously doubt their statistics. I have yet to see anyone hiking on the trail that isn't white and I must say I really am starting to miss diversity. Yes people on the trail are from all over the US, but it just isn't the same.So I have just been told tomorrow is Easter, which is funny because I didn't even know tomorrow was Sunday.