Date: 2008-01-10
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: Weeser Bald Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

mi. 0sleep shelterdest. Wesser Bald Shelter day 181 I was just listening to the weather radio and it said a small band of thunderstorms were headed thru Knoxville and Piegon Forge, unfortunatly it is too small of a band to hite where I am. It said there is a strong chance of hail. Now that would be fun. It is raining pretty hard, but nothing too out of control. It also said to head indoors. Lightning is one of natures biggest killers. If you can hear thunder you are close enough to get struck. Very reassuring. As you can see I didn't go anywhere today. I woke up this morning to heavy rain. Not something I really feel like hiking in. It is supposed to get cold tonight, so nothing that gets soaked will dry. So after getting my foodbag off the bear cable I ate some breakfest and relaxed. This gave me a chance to finish reading the magazine. Around 9am it was still raining. I was thinking. This whole time I only took 1 zero in the woods. I decided to fix that. Today is zero 2 in the woods. I sat around and did nothing. It was fantasic. I know I was just home. But that wasn't very relaxing. I had a lot on my mind and a lot to do other than resting my ankle. In the woods there is nothing but sleeping, eating, and reading to do. After a nap I woke up around noon to see the rain stopped. It was still cloudy but didn't look like it would rain until later. I was originally going to skip the next town of Franklin. But now I need to go in. If I would go on I would be staying in a small 1930's shelter when it was going to rain again. It also set me up to do a short day tomorrow or a long day into town. A long day into town would mean I would end up staying in town. So staying put seemed like a good call. A few minutes later Torque rolled up. He stayed at the NOC hostel last night. It didn't take much to convience him to stay. Missinglink and John also stopped by but went onto the next shelter for the evening. They are planning on staying where we are tomorrow night and probibly the next night. Funny how I went from all alone to around 3 other southbounders. It is really rare to see this many this late in the year. We are sharing the shelter with a guy out for a couple days. We got to talking around a huge bonfire we had going. He has done a ton of traveling and does technical work with engineers. A really cool guy to sit around the fire talking with for a couple hours. He also used to live in Atlanta, where I will be moving to post hike. And get this he maybe able to help me out with a short term job. How crazy is that. If I would have hiked on I would never have met him. Now I have a contact in the city I am ending up in. That just reinforces my opinion on the people I meet out here. There are truely the most amazing people here. Deluxe said it and I still agree now more than ever that I will not be surprised by anything that happens or anyone I meet. Oh and that is the second crazy thing that happened in 2 days. Yesterday's was a whole different kind of crazy. Someone I met and keep in contact with on my hike called to chat. I just happened to have my phone on. He said he is going to buy a sailboat sometime soon and do some long sailing trips. He said I am more than welcome to come along for however long. That is something I have always wanted to do. I can't get over all the crazily awesomily great things that I keep stubbling into out here. It just goes to show. The more people you meet and chat with the more great people you meet. Now I have a lead on a future adventure. Todays events goes to reinforce another theory of mine. Sorry in advance to people who only go hiking a couple times a year. The people I meet later in my hike that are not doing a long stretch are way more interesting as a hole than early on. There are a few exceptions. But people that only go out hiking a couple times a year for a night don't go out in winter. You only see them in the warmer months. People that love hiking, traveling and crazyness are the only ones you will see out now. Way more interesting plus they have the best stories to tell. But enough ranting for one day.