Date: 2013-04-17
From: About mile 567

To: Helvey's Mill Shelter
Miles today: 22.2

Well, well, well. Guess what woke me up at 1:30 in the morning? No, not the soothing moos of the cows. It was the hurricane force winds along with the thunder and cracklin of the lightning. The weather was for clear skies tonight, so I checked it again - now thunderstorms (but it changed again too). So do I stay or do I go? I GO! I packed up and was gone in 30 minutes. Rain gear on and hiking as fast as I can go. Then I noticed no rain, no thunder and no lightning. Then within minutes of thinking that, it started to rain and I could see lightning off in the distance so I picked up the pace. Then it stopped and I'm sweating more than it¢s raining so I take off the rain gear and just hiked for a while. Then out of nowhere it poured down on me - back on with the rain gear. Now I'm hiking on a ridge line that's 6 miles long, a cliff just one foot to my left, one small, wrong turn and I'm coyote food! The trail finally got away from the edge and about that time ¢ BOOM! - a bolt of lightning right above me. My pucker factor was off the chart! After my muscles relaxed, I had to change my plan (and that's not all). I just could not see because of the rain and the strobe-like effect of the lightning. I turned to my right because my left was a drop off. My only option was to the right. There were boulders there as big as a house and I knew there might be an overhang to get out of the rain and lightning. I went to the first one and there was an overhang with a two foot by five foot dry place, so I changed my shirt, put on my wind jacket and rain coat, pulled my ground cloth over me and laid down. It¢s now 4:15 am. That's when I started to think about snakes going up my pants leg or jacket. I was so tired I fell asleep but woke up shivering so I put on my heavy coat and fell back to sleep. I woke up at 6:30am, cold again, so I started hiking. I made it to Jenkins Shelter and had some breakfast. I reorganized my pack and left with rain gear on but it wasn't long before I was down to shorts for the rest of the day.I was coming down to Laurel Creek Road and a hiker by the name of ¢Chicken Bones¢ comes by. I start the conversation by saying, ¢I hear there is an all you can eat buffet down there!¢ He said, ¢Sure is. Try the BBQ chicken.¢ I laughed and made my way down to the road. No trail magic. So I start up the trail and about 100 feet away I see this tarp with coolers, a barbeque grill, dishes and more. The guy looks up at me and says, ¢You hungry?¢ Heck yeah! He asked if I would like some eggs and bacon, chicken, hot dogs, etc... This guy is ¢Fresh Grounds¢ and he sets up and stays there for a week or so feeding hikers. I've heard of him but thought I'd never get to meet him. All he asked is that we wash our hands in bleach water because of all the Norovirus going on behind us. So this is what I had: 3 hot dogs, the biggest chicken leg with John Boy and Billy grilling sauce, chips, an orange, chocolate nutty bar, 3 cups of lemonade, and an apple ¢ that¢s all! I put some money in the donation jar as he had been using his own money and it ran out.It was a killer hike to the next shelter, Helvey¢s Mill. I decided to go wash off in the creek which was 3 tenths of a mile, one way, downhill. Man was that water cold but by the time I made it back up, I was sweating. I'm in my tent now. I almost forgot to mention I had soda and cookies at the trailhead, just lying on the ground before my final climb ¢ so more trail magic. Also today, I came across Chapinlara in his tent. He said he had hiked till 11:00 pm last night. He missed the sign for the shelter but ended up smacking a tree with his head. He had blurred vision for a while but is fine now. Sounds like he rung his bell pretty good.