Date: 2019-03-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 15, March 4I enjoyed sleeping in a bed last night, I did toss and turn quite a bit just like I do in the tent but all in all definitely better rest than usual. I got up at 6:30 am to get all of my tasks completed.The first order of business was to do my laundry which the washer and drier was located in a little room in the back of the building,$2.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry, however they provide the detergent so not to bad of a deal. I decided to walk down the hill to find coffee while my clothes washed ,when I ran into Legs what a great early morning reunion, I later saw Rooster but unfortunately was not able to see Webster. Somehow since I¢m quite a bit older I feel responsible for all of these fellas, and I¢m always relieved to see they are still on trail healthy and happy.I found out later that Sunshine and Bluegrass saw Peach and Gopher on their way out Sunday before I had arrived. It¢s terrific that we are all still within a days hike of each other.Turns out a zero day on the trail is really quite a busy day not as relaxing as I would have imagined. I still have all of my gear laid out , my food to pack and a couple of minor repairs to perform before I hit the trail. I did go to Outdoors 76 hiker store and replaced a few items. I bought a new pair of rain pants the North Face Venture with their Dry Vent technology this replaced my older and heavier BP Paclite Goretex rain pants . Supposedly these will work better.....Also according to the resident rain gear expert my Marmot Exum was not designed to be a rain jacket but as an Alpine shell layer which would repel snow and was quite heavier than a true hiker designed rain jacket like their Arc¢teryx Traverse jacket.. Cha Ching item number 2 in my bag.Next I wanted to invest in hiker pants that were not so heavy and that would be more water resistant, dry quicker and have stretch for climbing these mountains. I replaced my Fjal Raven Vida Pros which I absolutely love they are probably designed for a harsher environment and are in my newly formulated opinion based on my two weeks experience, an overkill for the AT but mainly once they get wet they are hard to dry out so I bought a pair of Mountain Hardware AP pants, item number 3.It¢s supposed to be 17 degrees in the Valley tomorrow and probably 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus 3. I bought a midweight Minus 33 brand merino wool 230 grams base layer to primarily become my sleep shirt and I will hike with my Ice breaker 200 and if needed use both in conjunction.I will send back my Armor All Heat Gear shirt back home , item number 4.So having rain gear that is not functional is too dangerous to play around with once the temperatures drop, As you know we¢ve only had 3 solid days without rain since I¢ve been on trail so I know it¢s extreme however I expect and depend on this gear for survival -Food Water & Shelter no frills nothing else that¢s all I¢m asking for. It pains me deeply to have to buy more gear I¢m not an expert and I hear so many things but here is what I know for a fact , Sunday I was wet and cold to the bone shivering the whole way down to the hostel with the heater on full blast in the van ,not warming up until I got in a hot shower. I pray this stuff will work I won¢t always have a warm van or hot shower to save me.After all of my equipment purchases I had to hoof it to the post office to send my discarded items home. Later we made a trip to Walmart for our resupply for the week. We did get to enjoy some fine meals today, an AYCE lunch Buffet and a great hamburger for dinner so that was extremely satisfying. I gots to meet Triple Check and LoneStar at dinner and that was great as I¢ve enjoyed TC¢s blogs.That was pretty much my day, we¢ve pushed back our departure time from 9 to 11am to give us more time to organize and pack up and hopefully the temp will warm up a bit. Tomorrow we are back on trail !!!!