Date: 2019-06-16
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Bryant Ridge Shelter 
Miles today: 7.0

Today there was a shelter in 7, 11, or 17. I mentally wanted to make it to the far one, but would see how the day went. I got packed up and did breakfast. I was joined by a couple with a dog. I¢ve seen them before at Angel¢s Rest, but could not remember their names. Their dog is Bentley! Always remember the dog haha. They had a lightweight skillet and made pancakes, which was super awesome to watch. Omg! Moonshine, Juicebox, and Patient Zero headed out before me and I headed out before the couple. It was a steep and difficult downhill this morning after some up down up down. I ran into a million cobwebs and was frustrated. It felt like they were every five feet. People who say the cobwebs are the worst early in the morning I can¢t believe because I left later and they were bad! The spiders rebuild! Lol Tramp¢s story of spiders being like ¢fuck¢ every time someone walks through and rebuilding always comes in my head now. The spiders must hate us and just rebuild all day lol. Just don¢t put your webs there! Like ugh! I got to the bottom of the steepness and there was a bridge over a swimming hole. It was so hot, I considered swimming. I went down and there was a family there and a hiker across the river in his hammock. Noodle showed up too and it was nice to see her! I decided to stay and hang out a bit. I was not feeling any motivation to hike and this seemed like a nice spot to be. It was so hot today too. The family eventually left and Noodle and I just wandered through the water. It was pretty cold. A mom and her boy showed up to go swimming and he was nervous about jumping in, but then he just went for it! And I felt like a total chicken because I¢d been sitting there waiting to jump in and he just went for it! He was adorable. I told him I liked his water shoes and he said ¢awww shucks¢. *melts* the four of us swam and I finally jumped in! Chicken no more! I think I got so hot from not going in that I finally got the nerve to go in! Hah. I swam over to a rock and lay down on it to dry off. My clothes take forever to dry, so I was hoping the sun would help. It was a bit cloudy so the sun wasn¢t fully there. The couple and their dog Bentley showed up and were nervous to jump in too, but they went in! Their dog didn¢t want to go in, but they pulled him in so he could cool off and then he swam and seemed to enjoy it. Such a cutie that dog!! I heard a plop and looked over and saw a snake going into the water. It swam over to where I was and popped it¢s head out and stared at me. Oh hell no. Lol I was wondering how I¢d get back to the shore from the rock with the snake right there. I didn¢t know if it was harmful or not because the water was murky, but I didn¢t wanna swim with snakes regardless! The woman and her son said a rattlesnake lived under the bridge and was there today, but this guy didn¢t rattle and was too small to be one. Maybe he was a baby rattlesnake? Unclear. He finally swam under and I quickly tried to get back to the shore. The rocks were slippery underneath the water!I got to the shore and walked around and Noodle kept swimming, but I told her about the snake and she was nervous. We decided it was time to hike on, as it was getting stormy and late in the afternoon. There was a shelter 4 miles from here. My day would be a short one, but again I was just not feeling it at all. So I decided to do that. Plus the shelter in 4 miles was known for being a nice shelter with good craftsmanship and plenty of room. I was excited to see it. Noodle and I packed up and headed out to the trailhead. It was immediately a huge uphill, because of course once it goes down, it has to go up! So Noodle went ahead and we took a few breaks. We were sweating buckets and totally wiped from the heat. It started to sprinkle, but didn¢t rain hard. We got almost to the top and there was a group of hikers taking a break there. Everyone hiked on and it started to go downhill. It was a steep down and then a slight up to the shelter. The shelter was very cool! It was just like I pictured; well built, large, and by a creek. We settled in, but didn¢t set our stuff up yet. There were several other hikers there and more showed up throughout the night. I¢ll be honest, given my mood, I didn¢t really ask anyone what their trail names were. I just didn¢t want to know any more people and hear how much faster they¢re all going. There was a girl and man who looked like daughter and father, but I didn¢t know. And there were two girls from Maine who made me envious. They had earrings and jewelry and were thin and pretty and made me feel fat and unaccomplished. They were perfectly nice, but my insecurities were just eating me away. I had only gone 7 miles today and they had gone 20. And they were going 20 tomorrow too. To top it all off, an ultra-marathoner named Seventy showed up. He was trying to do the trail in 70 days. He does 31 miles a day or something like that. His pack is super light. I knew I¢d never see him again lol. But I socialized with him anyway.There was another guy I chatted with for a bit and then one named Rain. I felt so bad because Rain had left his rain coat by the swimming hole, and Noodle and I had seen it. It was folded into the pocket so it was small, and we had taken it out to see what it was. We didn¢t know who it belonged to and hadn¢t seen Rain earlier. There was a campground nearby that hikers went to so we didn¢t know if the owner was ahead or at the campground. We should¢ve picked it up, but it¢s so hard to know if you¢ll ever find the owner, and it¢s heavy to carry that extra weight. And Rain had hiked on 1 mile before realizing anyway so he would¢ve been gone and we would¢ve had to hike with the coat the next day, or leave it behind at the shelter. Anyway, he came back the 1 mile and we sadly told him his raincoat was all the way back at the swimming hole. He kept asking if we saw a ¢pillow¢ because it was wrapped up in the pocket of the coat. He decided to slackpack the 4 miles to go get it. It was a nice coat and not cheap, so he really didn¢t want to lose it. I suggested he call the campground because they have a shuttle that goes to the swimming hole and maybe they could pick it up and hold it for him, but I think he just ran to get there instead. When he got there, someone named Slow Poke had picked it up and was across the river, so he went to ask if he had seen a pillow, but since we had unfolded it, there was a lot of confusion. Slow Poke had seen the raincoat and gave it to him and it was all good! Slow Poke had added 8 miles of slackpacking onto a 17 mile day, craziness! He got back around 9pm.I set up my tent inside the shelter, which is know is kinda goofy, but the bugs have just been so bad and they¢re eating me up when I sleep in the shelters. So I figured it was just a big bug net! It was a big enough shelter that I put my tent there and there was still a ton of room on the first and second level. Noodle set up in the corner. We ate dinner and chatted with folks for a bit, and Noodle and I opened up a bit about stresses and pains we were going through. We had some moonshine too! It was a hot night, and it rained a bit, but not as much as we expected it would. Unfortunately, my sleep pad made a lot of noise. I don¢t understand why it makes more noise some nights than others. It was so loud tonight. Maybe there was too much or too little air in it? Or maybe it was having my tent in the shelter and the rubbing? Unclear haha. I felt so bad though. Hikers complain a lot about things like this and I completely understand and I didn¢t want to be ¢that person¢ and have that loud pad, but I didn¢t know what to do tonight. I got up to pee in the middle of the night because I really had to go, and two people woke up to me moving, even though I was trying to be so quiet. I also used my red light because that¢s the respectful thing to do. But one girl said ¢ahh what¢s happening?¢ And I was just frustrated because I was just trying to go pee. Ugh what a frustrating time. The trail is really not my jam right now; I am totally having the blues. Little Debbie