Date: 2021-05-12
From: Knot Maul Shelter

To: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: scattered clouds

Oh. My. Word. What a day. I knew it was going to be tough. My longest day so far. First full day with full pack. A bona fide 4K foot high mountain at the end of the day. I knew it. First strike against me was a very poor night's sleep, again. With a temperature of 38 degrees last night I was so cold! I wasn't expecting temperatures like that. I never got comfortable in my hammock either. I guess I'm out of practice. I couldn't get out of the banana configuration and lie flat. Maybe I had a bad hang somehow, or my angles were off or something, but I couldn't fix it. So, cold and uncomfortable.So it wasn't too hard to get up early, since I wasn't sleeping anyway. It was 1.4 mile down to a creek and a bridge, then I started the first climb of the day, 600 feet uphill over one mile to the top of Lynn Camp Mt. When I got to the top, surprise!, it started snowing! I knew it was cold, but I seriously did not expect to see snow. Big fat white fluffy flakes. It seemed absurd, and beautiful, and like another one of those crazy curveballs that the trail throws at you. I marvelled at the snow for awhile, and then walked 1.2 mile downhill to Lick Creek. The bridge washed out last year, so the only way to get across it is to ford it. It's a small creek, probably twenty feet across and knee deep. Most hikers, myself included, carry a pair of Crocs or similar shoes to wear in camp at night. There were several other hikers there when I got there, so I got to watch them go first. Sit down on a stump, take off your shoes and socks, tie them together, and loop them over your shoulder. Put on your Crocs, pick up your trekking poles, and enter the creek. Commence squealing from the cold water. Make your way across, carefully, get out on the other side, put your shoes back on, and laugh at the next person squealing. There was a rope tied across the creek with a pulley system and a pair of rubber water shoes on it. So I guess if you didn't have your own Crocs you could use those to cross in, then hang them back up for the next person. With the pulleys they could be accessed from either side of the creek! I stayed there a while to let my feet air dry, eat some cashews and M&Ms, and watch another girl cross. The water was so cold that my feet and calves were bright red, with a clear line of demarcation mid calf And then. Then I started up Chestnut Ridge. It was 4.3 miles to the shelter at the top, and over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Gulp. It looked like a monster in my guidebook. It was just up....and up....and up some more. I toiled. I gasped. I huffed and puffed. How to describe my gait? I guess "trudging" would be a good word. I trudged. There were few landmarks along the way, little of interest to break the monotony, and no Walker Mountain-like time warps. Just trudging. At this point maybe you should stop reading and go do something really really hard for a few hours and when you come back I will still be toiling up the bloody mountain. There may have been fabulous views along the way, or a family of bears, there could have been anything, but I wouldn't have seen it. My head was down and I was walking. One foot in front of the other, over and over. One of the hardest things I've ever done. I honestly wasn't even thinking, that last hour. I was sort of in a daze, an automaton, a zombie, steadily lurching forward. I knew that at the top of the mountain was a shelter, an enclosed shelter, with four walls and a door, and that I had to get there. My great fear was that it would be full when I got there. I couldn't even think about what to do then. Just keep walking.  I did of course get there. The tiny little stone cabin in a grassy field on the top of a windswept mountain. And there was only one other person there, a nice guy named First Gear, an older hiker but not as old as me. There was a picnic table inside the shelter, and sleeping platforms, but not bunks. Someone had drawn a fireplace on one wall, and a light switch by the door, but there was of course no heat or electricity. But it was heaven on earth to me at that moment! First Gear felt the same way and to celebrate he ate two suppers. It got dark quickly, it had taken me all day to get there. With dark comes cold and I'm dead tired, so I need an inflatable mat and a down topquilt. They're calling my name. Good night.