Date: 2009-05-05
From: Jenkins Shelter, VA 

To: Helveys Mill Shelter, VA
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: moderate rain

Cell goodOG notesRain, rain, rain. The rain came last night while we were in the shelter. Then this morning was clear like yesterday so we started hiking without the rain suit. Partially into the day it started misting so I put on my rain jacket. Then by early afternoon it started to rain fairly hard. I never did put my rain pants on and soon regretted it. I ended up getting my pants soaking wet. Rain gear out here is like a double edge sword. If you don't wear it you get wet from the rain. If you do wear it you get wet from your own sweat. Nothing seems to work to prevent this including Goretex. You just have to best guess what will work best. Incidentally we have ponchos to use during the summer months. We still need the suits as wind breaker layers right now.We ran into trail magic twice today. We came across a cooler with bottles of Gatorade and a trash can to dump our garbage. A cooler was in the same place in 2006 but all the goodies were gone then. I don't tell C6 the places where I saw magic because there hasn't been any at most of them, this time there was. The second magic was jugs of water. This too was a repeat place from 2006. We filled a bottle in anticipation of making Gatorade for lunch. That plan got spoiled as the sky let loose and we continued hiking for the shelter. We did make the Gatorade when we reached the shelter and ate lunch.We are in the shelter again tonight. It has rained off and on since we've been here, I'm glad to be in here. We have our tent but there is so much more room in the shelter when it's raining. We can also prepare dinner here which would be dangerous in the tent. And the final thing is we don't have to pack up a wet tent in the morning.C6 notesAnother rainy day. We hiked in the pouring rain for about an hour and arrived at the shelter very wet. Not long after we got here the rain stopped and we've been able to dry things out pretty much. The temperature has dropped since it rained, so we're chilly. I'm sitting in my sleeping bag to keep warm. It's a lot warmer than it has been though, so even though we're chilly, we don't have our down jackets on yet.In an attempt to get as far North as we can by Memorial Day weekend, we hope to hike 24 miles tomorrow. OG said that this section is a fairly easy section. The shelters are spaced quite far apart, so to go to the second shelter from where we are tonight is 24 miles. Our backup plan is a place where we can tent 17 miles up the trail. It's been raining a lot over the past 5 days though, so we would prefer to sleep in a dry shelter.I've been keeping track of the weather while we've been hiking. As of today (day 55), we have had 24 sunny days and all the other days have been other than sunny....a LOT of rain and cold. The last 5 days have been very wet and rainy, and this rain is supposed to last for the next 3-4 days. I wrote a short while back about my attitude adjustment. Now that we've had 5 straight days of rain I can see my attitude adjustment has helped. Halfway through yesterday was a low point...we had been hiking uphill for almost 4 miles and we were in a cold wet cloud. The terrain was just like the day I was extremely discouraged. That was a low point for me yesterday, but I didn't get to the point of having another meltdown. When I realized what was happening to my emotions, I talked about it with OG and I was able to stop it from progressing. We have been averaging 2 miles an hour on most days. We didn't achieve that average yesterday because we are slower going uphill (and there was a LOT of uphill!), and hiking on rocks slows us down (and there were a LOT of rocks!). Today was better because most of today was fairly easy hiking - a lot of it on an old mountain road. Hmmm...as I type this a cloud came in, so we're in the fog again. It's getting colder, too, so I'm going to have to put on my down jacket soon. I know we'll have hot days when we will wish for these colder days, but not yet. Right now I just would like more sunny and warm days.It's later now. We had a hot dinner, which warmed us up. "Chele" arrived at the shelter after us. Not too long after he got here he realized he had left his hiker's companion book in the town that's 1.5 miles back from here (and a 2.5 hitch hike ride from the AT, if you can get a ride). He had gotten a ride into the town to get something and put his book down when he made a phone call. When he realized he left it there, he decided to go back and get it. Oh to be young again...he made it down and back in record time. (He left his backpack here with us. It's much easier to hike without the pack.) He knew where Adin was staying in town (a motel right across the street from where he left his book), so he delivered a message for us. We asked Adin to give us a call (we didn't have his cell #) because we changed the plans we had made with him and wanted to let him know. When Adin called, he said "Chele" had been there and was on his way back already. As I said....oh to ! be young again! Old Goat & Check Six