Date: 2014-04-07
From: Mollies Ridge Shelter

To: Derrick Knob shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: moderate rain

Luckily, it stopped raining sometime before dawn, so I wouldn't be hiking in the rain today. On the downside, the torrential downpour left the trail in poor condition, including deep pockets of mud, and inches of standing water. Oh, and there was still the small mater of the furious, freezing winds blowing up the side of the mountain to contend with.I had three options today: a 2.8 mile hike to the next shelter; a 5.7 mile hike to the shelter after that; or a 12 mile hike to the third shelter in line. Rule 3 in the GSMP is that all hikers must use the shelters, UNLESS they're full, at which point thru hikers may tent in the immediate vicinity of the shelter. So, no stealth camping. This essentially meant that I had to pick one of these three options. Or, sit on my ass and take a zero, the unspoken option 4. I thought the first two options were a joke, and I wasn't zeroing, so I picked the 12 mile day. I stopped for a coffee break at the 2.8 mile mark, and saw Tom and Tassie doing the same. Rule 4 in the GSMP, is no cooking inside the shelters. Considering the wind, it proved impossible to keep my stove lit to boil water at the shelter I stayed at last night. The coffee break shelter, as named by me, offered a little more protection from the wind, and I was able to boil water for coffee. Big morale boost. Now, one issue involved standing around for anything longer than 10 or 15 minutes--it got really cold, really fast. Basically, one had to start moving, or start freezing. This didn't seem like a big issue at the time, because I'd planned to stop at the second shelter for lunch--about 3 miles up trail.Which brings me to issue number 2. There's obviously competition to reach the next shelter before your brother and sister hiker, because of GSMP rule number 2. When I got to the second shelter, a fair number of hikers were calling it a day at the 5.7 mile mark. This was probably a wise decision, and there were plenty of open spaces when I arrived there for lunch. But for those who know me, I'm way too stubborn for such nonsense like personal safety, and I pushed on. And believe me, it was REALLY cold outside.I started to question my judgement as I was making the Thunderhead Mountain summit, a mere 5500 feet up. While there were no spectacular views here due to the weather, the wind gusts were so strong that it would snag my backpack, and swat me off the trail. No cool pictures, because I was having a hard time standing upright, never mind lining up the perfect photo. I did consider getting some video footage, but the decision to get the hell off the summit came very quickly.From there came many miles of PUDS, complicated by deep mud on the trail. Hiking up, this meant pulling each foot out of a half an inch of mud, then rinse and repeat. Hiking down, mud is slicker than ice which meant carefully placing your feet before pulling each one out of a half an inch of mud. Very unsavory. Around the 11 mile mark, both of my feet came out from underneath me at the same time, and I went to ground--backpack first--very fast. That one had me seeing stars, because it slammed my mouth shut at the precise moment I hit the ground. Now coated in a ridiculous layer of mud, I continued on. Uninjured.But wait. The last mile was a 500 foot up hike that almost had me finishing the day on my hands and knees. Cold, starving, exhausted, and exposed to the elements. But...hot food, shelter, warm, dry clothes (including 100% amazing Alpaca socks) and the world was a better place. Maslow...that guy might've been on to something...