Date: 2014-05-07
From: Bryant Ridge Shelter

To: Seeley Gap Shelter
Miles today: 100.0
Weather: broken clouds

The Age of the Dinosaur!I awoke in Bryant's Ridge Shelter more exhausted than if gone to bed. Everything ached and all I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep, but I knew I shouldn't. I wearily packed my things, climbed down from the loft, picked at breakfast and then started up the 4 mile climb the rose up steeply behind the shelter. There was no preamble for me to warm up on and the immediate ascent was hellacious. Moxie and I started out together, but he passed me when I stopped to put away my rain jacket. It was misting, but I was so hot that the interior of my jacket was more wet from sweat than the exterior from precipitation. I never caught him. He needed to book it in order to gather his mail drop the following day. I made it up to the top alone and reached the first shelter 5 miles away. It was miserable. I got there, sat around for a few minutes considering whether or not to eat some food, and then lay down on the bare wood floor, with my feet propped up on my pack, and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later, kicked off my shoes, pulled out my sleeping back, and proceeded to go back to sleep. If I was going to nap I might as well do it right. I was tapped awake a couple hours later when KO-KO and Seymore showed up to have their lunch. They had stayed behind at the same shelter as Dinosaur the night before and they said the rest of that group was not far behind them. As I had slept the wind had picked up and the temperatures dropped slightly... Though the humidity was as high as ever. KO-KO said that it was scheduled to storm that afternoon, so beware. I nodded sluggishly from my sleeping bag and turned back over to continue catnapping for a bit. Soon Midnight Sparkled, Trail Santa (he's 21, adorable, and every night he puts on his Santa hat and passes around a bag of candy that he carries to share) and Dinosaur showed up. And older trio, Princess, her husband, Rocket Man, and her brother, Ranger, all showed up too. Everyone was in for a late lunch when the sky finally grayed over and the promised thunder, lightening and hard rains began. I packed away my sleeping bag and joined in the festivities. We ate, talked and played cards until the rain ceased and the sun reappeared. I felt refreshed and ready for action. I'd been trounced in Diamonds twice and it was time to walk off the burn of defeat. Dinosaur asked if we could walk together again and I readily agreed. She's good company and we are well matched for speed. Because I had lazed so long I knew there was no possibility of a high milage day, but I balked at the idea of ending with less than 10, so we hit my 10 mile mark and made it to Thunder Ridge Shelter 10.2 away from my starting point. I was contented. We spent a pleasant evening there with Cheese Burger, Baggie and Safari... Midnight Sparkle ambled in right at dark, like me incapable to settling for a single-digit-mile-day. Dino and I decided that we really liked hiking together. I was able to decipher he accent better now and we were able to talk and hike more easily. She's very mild mannered, but she has a bit of spice to her too. Her jokes are usually subtle, but wicked, and I'd find myself chuckling at them three minutes after they'd been said... I'm slow on the uptake sometimes. We talked history a lot, because she was really curious about our civil war. I was curious about German politics and she spent a couple of hours explaining the finer details of their coalition system. It was fascinating! After a careful examination of both of our food bags we realized that we were both going to need I resupply in the next day and a half or so and made a decision to make a push together for Buena Vista, about 38 miles away. If we did some miles the next day we could make it into town midday the day after, which would allow us time to do laundry, shower, resupply and eat out. There was a Chinese place listed in our guidebook that peaked our interest. We got up before everyone else the following morning an set off into a brilliant day. The sunwas out, the breeze was wonderful, and most of our walk was beside steams. The terrain was relatively flat until the end of the day, where we got a steep 3000 foot climb. We cowboy camped for the night next to an overlook and played a hand of cards before hitting the hay. We were up by 5:20 the next morning, packed up in the predawn gray and shuffled off into a wet fog that had accumulated overnight. It was dreary work, but by 8:00 the sun had burned off the last of the clouds and morning doves and chickadees trilled their delight. It was fast work to cover the remaining 15 miles to our road crossing and we were able to hitch a lift into Buena Vista by 1:30. We stayed overnight in the Bluedog Art Cafe, a hostel that looked like it was recovering from the Bolshevik Revolution. The rugs had been torn up from the floor, the bathroom shower lacked a shower head... And heat... For the majority of our stay and though there was a television and DVD player, and a stack of very tempting movies, the electronics were incompatible and refused to be cajoled into any sort of entertainment value.Dino had had her heart set on watching a movie and was deeply teased by the stack of movies. I found a copy of "To Kill a Mocking Bird" and started to read aloud and she was pacified. We spent a pleasant evening that way and turned out the light by 9. It was REALLY hot and stuffy though and I couldn't get comfortable. Also, everything itched. I was well big bitten already from the previous two days of heat, but the longer I lay on the bed the itchier I got. I tossed and turned for hours and got nowhere. I finally gave up, grabbed my headlamp and read more of the book. I love Scout Finch. She is one of my all time favorite characters. I read myself to sleep. Next morning I woke up covered in little red bites. Fleas!!! Oh I was miserable. We had breakfast and waited for our free shuttle back to the trail. The owner took her time about it and we didn't make it out until almost 11. The temperatures were up in the 90's and the bugs were unrelenting. Dino and I had to reapply repellent every hour and a half or so, and the smell of citronella became more pervasive than our BO- that's really hard to do! We walked for 15 miles and then set up camp next to a watering hole a couple of miles past Seeley-Woodworth Shelter, which had a swarm of flies buzzing around it. We read some more out loud through our tent walls... Neither of us wanted to stay outside unprotected by bugnetting... And went to bed. We knew we needed to rise early for our big day following: The Priest and Three Ridges.