Date: 2008-03-29
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Moreland Gap Shelter
Miles today: 26.4
Weather: light rain

Early this morning, I heard rain falling on the metal roof of the shelter and decided to go back to bed. At 8a, however, Toddy Bear and I woke up and began eating breakfast as we watched the rain keep coming. By 9a, we said goodbye to Night Terror because he was gonna meet his brother and friend Ziggy at the Hostel today and they were going to hike with him for a couple of days...so we knew we wouldn't see him for a couple of weeks. I dawned my Tarp-Poncho and we began our climb up Little and Big Hump Mountains. Well, the fog was soo thick and the rain and wind were soo hard, that Toddy Bear and I decided to hustle out of there. Man, the wind was so fierce, as I was walking, the wind almost knocked me down. At 12p, we reached Applehouse Shelter and met up with The Red Ranger, who was taking a break. I've noticed that The Red Ranger has become more talkative with us. When we first met him, he seemed withdrawn from the other hikers, but he was talking to Toddy Bear and me about his 2006 Thru-Hike. Appearantly, he was number 6 to reach Harper's Ferry and number 18 to summit Katahdin. Well, Red pushed on and Toddy Bear and I took a 45 minute lunch break. The scenery today was very nice. Once we crossed the road, the rain and fog had dissipated. Our views included open valleys, 4-wheeler paths, and a church that lets you use their spigot for water. Before we reached the Mountaineer shelter, there was a beautiful water fall nestled into the backdrop of the mountains. We couldn't find the side trail, but we did enjoy watching it cascade down the mountain. At 4:30p, we were at the Mountaineer shelter and were greeted by Jax. While eating second lunch, Jax told us that we had missed Stovie and Fester by 3 hours. They were planning to stay at the Moreland Gap Shelter. We checked the register and Fester had "called me out" and I told Toddy Bear that we must push on the extra 9.5 miles so that we could catch up with them. We decided to think about it while we discovered that the shelter had its own issue of HUSTLER. Well, I guess it was brought by some lonely fellow the same amount of happiness as it did us!!! Realizing that we would arrive at the shelter late, we decided to forgo getting water and immediately push on. Withing the first hour, Toddy Bear and I covered 4.2 miles--this is the fastest I have moved since I've been out here and since my blister. By 7p, we had reached Hardcore Cascade (about 6.5 miles away from Mountaineer) and chatted with 2 weekenders.As we were climbing our last mountain, I began to struggle. I was tired and only had .5L of water during our Blitzkrieg towards Moreland, but Toddy Bear stayed with me and kept encouraging me. Soon, the mountain flattened out a bit and we cruised down. At around 8p, I thought I saw the shelter, but did not rejoice because I was afraid of it being a trail mirage. It wasn't until we saw head lamps that we yelled out, "Stovie! Fester!" There response was, " Hummus?--that's my "Trail Nickname," not my Trail Name!!!--Toddy Bear? Wow, I can't believe you guys made it?!?" When we got closer to the shelter, we noticed there were more people here than we thought. Not only were Fester and Stovie here, but so was Chris and Lacey, Gary (AT '04) and two weekenders. Also, there was a random Australian Sheepdog there which has taken to Chris and Lacey. So, he named the dog Rocket man because of his lightning like speed! After making camp, I was too tired to walk down the steep hill to the water source, but I was VERY thirsty. So, Chris and Lacey, Stovie, and Fester allowed me and Toddy Bear to take some water from them. I only took enough to satisfy my thirst and just enough to quench my thirst should I get thirsty in the middle of the night. Being too tired to cook, and not having enough water, I ate a King Sized Snickers with Almonds dipped in peanut butter. As we bedded down, we heard one of Chris and Lacey's mouse traps go off. He caught a very FAT mouse. We all joked around and eventually "Hit the Hay." Oh! This is currently my biggest day and my blister doesn't hurt at all. When I was putting on my "sleeping socks," Stovie saw my blister and took a picture of it because it was the biggest one that he'd ever seen!!! Keeping with our original schedule, we're gonna push into Hampton, TN for a stay at the Braemar Castle!!!