Date: 2008-04-29
From: Pinefield Hut

To: Bearfence Mnt. Hut
Miles today: 20.6

Woke up at 6:30-ish and saw South Sides hitting the trail. So, I decided to get our food bags down and as I was doing this, a drop of rain, that's right, a drop, hit me in the face!! While performing our morning ritual, the sky opened up and rain began to POUR...before we left, Shepherd informed us that the temperature was 46*F. I knew I would get too hot if I wore my Tarp-Poncho, so I decided to wrap it on my pack like a pack cover and wore my rain coat. Our biggest climb of the day was early on...which meant that I was sweating. I would have taken my jacket off, but the rain and wind--mainly the wind--which kept this idea at bay. At 9:20a-ish, however, the rain finally broke, the sun began to shine, but the wind continued to blow. The blowing wind meant two things: 1) The wind chill factor makes it colder than Stovie's announcement of 40*F and 2) My Tarp-Poncho-Packcover was not gonna stay on! As I thought, the Tarp-Poncho-Packcover didn't stay on very well and I had to make many stops for Shepherd to help me arrange it. You know that saying, "A jack of all trades, but a master of none?" Well, it DEFINITELY applies to the Tarp-Poncho! Anyhow, we made it to Powell Gap and I decided to take a picture of the sign for a girl I know named Kate. She plans to hike the AT, eventually, and I thought this might encourage her to at least make it to this point! As we were climbing toward the High Top Hut, we passed a hiker going SOBO who was bundled up in layers. Again, this made me chuckle because here we Thru-Hikers are wearing a jacket and shorts while this chap is bundled up!!When we reached the shelter, the temperature was now 38*F and windy. Then, we met two section hikers named Jigsaw and Jaybird. They are hiking the trail on the 20 year plan and are currently 12 and 8 years, respectively, into their plan. We told them about the rain this morning and they told us that they had gotten snow. They pushed on, but we decided to take a 30 minute snack break. When we made it to Swift Run Gap, we all decided to take our packs off and sit on the side of a road to eat lunch. Well, the sun was shining very nicely and we decided to take advantage of this situation by napping!!! It felt really good to just relax and enjoy the warmth of the sun beating down on your skin (I think Shepherd took a pic)! Yup, we looked like bums and I'm pretty sure we "ruined" the SNP tourist's view of nature..ha ha!! After a 1 hour lunch break, we decided to press on to the South River Picnic Grounds. It was only a 3 mile climb and when we had gone 2.6 miles, Stovie looked at his watch and said, "Well, it looks like we've got another hour to go." After informing him that it was only 0.4 more miles, he responded with, "What? We're walking at over 3 miles per hour?" When we got to the Picnic Grounds, we took turns launching a tag team assault on the [flushable] privy and filled up our water bottles. After leaving, Toddy Bear and Shepherd took off. I decided to test my stamina and tried to keep up, but was only able to stay at least 200 yards behind them. When we all reached the Pocasin Cabin, I looked at Stovie and asked how he was doing because I wanted to make sure we weren't being too rough on him on his first day back. Once he caught his breath, he said, "Were we running? I feel like I just finished running! Why are we running?" I feel bad that we're "baptizing him in fire," but that was hilarious!!! At 4:15p, we made it to the Lewis Mnt. Campground Store and bought some goodies: I had a bag of Doritos, 2 pieces of Carrot Cake, and a root beer ( I ate the chips and 1 cake on the porch)! When we got to camp, Jigsaw and Jaybird told us that they'd seen 2 bears today...I hope to see one soon. We made dinner and I drank my root beer and ate my cake. The temperature was dropping at this point and we decided to nestle into our bags. Oh! While in Waynesboro, Toddy Bear switched to his summer gear and Stovie did the same when he returned! Now, Stovie was in his 32*F bag, called NEVER WINTER and he explained to us that he started with this bag at Springer Mountain, in the winter. Then, he said, "What kind of a Dumb@$$ am I? Did I not think it was gonna get colder than 32* on a winter night?" Also, he presented a "strange twist" on our Woodpecker question...found in a previous entry. I would post it here, but it's funnier if you were there. Stovie's watch now says it's 33*F and we're cold!!!Toddy Bear, Yeti, and Stovie--Kanati and Fester too--e-mail me to find out what type of "twist" Stovie put on our Woodpecker question...it's well worth hearing!!!