Date: 2015-06-04
From: Skyland lodge

To: Campsite 958.2
Miles today: 26.2
Weather: overcast clouds

We woke this morning to another rainy, foggy, cold day. It is so very, very hard to start the day in such conditions. You know it is going to be miserable. The weather forecast was 100% chance of rain with no more than 1/4 inch of rain.   Hopefully, it would just be a misty foggy (aka British day). We could hike in that, maybe.   We knew we had to start the day, so out we went. Within 10 minutes of the start of hiking, it started to pour rain. There goes that forecast. It rained more than 1/4 inch in the first 40 minutes we were hiking. Since it has been raining so much, the trail was nothing but rocks and mud. We were hiking downhill; well, more like sliding in the mud going downhill. We saw nobody else for the first 3 hours of hiking. It was sort of eerie, with the fog and seeing no one. We hiked on, going up uphill and then stopping at the Byrds Nest hut for a break. We had a snack and tried to dry out our boot and socks since they were soaked. We left the hut about 15 minutes later and continued hiking.   Shortly after it started pouring again and our boots and socks were soaked once again. At this point we resigned ourselves to the fact that it was going to be a wet day. We were hiking downhill over rocks with the rain causing a stream of water in the trail. We kept hiking until we we reached the Thornton Gap parking area. We found a restroom with hand dryers at Thornton Gap.   We used the hand dryers to try to dry our boots and socks once again. After drying our stuff for 15 minutes or so we ran into Peace Dog and Servo. They had just returned to the trail from Luray where they had resupplied.   They had an extra Hardee's burger which they couldn't eat and asked if we wanted it. We of course jumped on it and ate it quickly.    We stared hiking again and for the third time today it poured on us. We were soaked again. We did see a deer and her fawn. We thought with the weather so bad, the animals were smarter than us and stayed out of the rain.   We kept hiking until 13:35 when we stopped for lunch. It was at a pull out along Skyline and we stopped just long enough to eat our lunch and then it was back to hiking.   It was a very long afternoon of hiking in the rain. We stopped at Elkwallow wayside at 15:50 for some rest and to resupply. We got enough food to get us to Harper's Ferry and then we ordered some dinner . Count had a pulled pork sandwich and Lavender had a toasted cheese sandwich.   We once again tried to dry off our boots and socks as best as we could. Then we started a big 1100 foot climb up to Hogback Overlook. Of course, we could see nothing except clouds from the overlook. It seems to add insult to injury as we climb in the rain and then see nothing.   At this point we had about 20 miles in for the day and we started looking for a stealth campsite.   We hiked and hiked and couldn't find any suitable site. We came to the next hut and it was filled with the wounded warriors along with the CNN film crew who is following them. So, we hiked on looking for a place to set up camp. Of course, it rained on us once again.    We were really starting to get tired, our feet were hurting us and we were covered in mud. We needed to find something quickly. We hiked on another few miles before we were finally able to find a spot to camp. It was nearly 20:00 before we stopped for the day.   We had hiked a marathon today, 26.2 miles. Now we just hope we can get a good night's sleep after a long hard day. The few good things about the rain 1) we don't sweat, 2) there are no snakes and 3) well, there isn't very many good things about hiking in the rain.