Date: 2017-10-10
From: Roaring Brook Shelter

To: Standing Bear Hostel at Green Corner Road
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: broken clouds

My alarm goes off at 6:30 am. Has Nate squeezed itself out? Was the night¢s rain pounding on the shelter roof Nate¢s best punch?  Is he tuckered out, or is this just a lull, and when will it pick up again?I start packing inside Roaring Brook Shelter, and after I¢d changed and pulled out the morning¢s food it started. (Frodo: Okay, I have to tell you all why I just laughed out loud. Scout¢s ¢t¢s often look like ¢f¢s and he doesn¢t always leave a space between words. It looked like ¢its farted.¢ Princess Alert! And yesterday when he wrote that he ¢tucked in behind¢ two day hikers, he actually wrote me a note that the first letter of ¢tucked¢ was a ¢t¢ not an ¢f¢, ¢cause it sure looked like an f.) Pings, bangs, and then booming on the roof. Dot, Franky, and Aloha haven¢t budged. It¢s now 7:15 and I just lay back down.Every morning we hear the same sad sound. It¢s so final. It¢s the whoosh of air as we open the valve on our sleeping pad. Softness gone, hiking awaits.Franky pulled the plug first. The other three of us quickly followed. We have 15.2 miles to Standing Bear Hostel, but the day¢s highlight is in two miles. Max Patch, a high bald with a 360-degree view and our first view of the Smoky Mountains. But will we only have rain, views obliterated?We¢re moving out before 8:00, umbrellas up, and the rain lightens. It stops. As we approach the bald, we get glimpses down into the valleys. When the trail bursts into the open, not only can we see to the horizon, but shafts of sunlight break through narrow slits in the clouds. Directly on the summit, a sunlight burst hits us. Dot does a handstand. You¢ll be glad that I don¢t have a picture of this one. Yesterday I took my life in my hands and bought a nine-pack of Little Debbie¢s sweet rolls. Maybe I¢ve forgotten about the wasp that stung my tongue when I took a bite just as it had landed on the Little Debbie¢s pastry. I only needed 7, so I gave 2 to Aloha. When Aloha came to the shelter last night he told me I¢d given him the opportunity for the first time to make a trail delicacy. It was a tortilla spread with peanut butter, with the pastry on top of the peanut butter, then before folding it up like a wrap, you add a whole Snickers bar. Aloha: ¢My favorite thing I¢ve eaten on trail!¢ (Frodo: That made me laugh out loud, too.)We stop for a few breaks, it rains a few times, just enough to break out the magic umbrellas, and we never have a real lunch. We knew we¢d hit Standing Bear Hostel mid-to-late afternoon and the finest of frozen pizza awaited us.And truth be told, it was the finest frozen pizza I have ever had. They have an actual pizza oven ¢ not wood fired, but one solely used to cook pizzas. And the pizza was brimming with cheese, not the stingy amounts usually found on a frozen pizza. (Frodo: Not sure where Scout become such an expert on frozen pizza. It has never been found in our freezer.) I finished two-thirds and the rest is for lunch tomorrow.A mile before Standing Bear, Aloha gave out a yelp. ¢I yelled like a girl!¢ (Frodo: I think everyone yells in fear about the same.) Take a gander at this photo to see why. http://www.trailjournals.com/j...(Frodo: And Scout included this random photo of something scary looking - maybe a baby crawdad?)  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...At the hostel, Dot and I passed Josephine back and forth. John Reed who works here named his guitar Josephine; she had a soft action and a fine sound. They have a washtub bass, too. http://www.trailjournals.com/j... Tomorrow morning, before even three miles pass, we will enter our last National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We will repeatedly climb over 6000 feet. I¢ll hit Gatlinburg in two days, where my son Sean will hop on the trail with me again. I think this odyssey may be done in two weeks. Oh my.