Date: 2003-05-21
From: Iron Mountain Gap, TN

To: Indian Grave Gap, TN
Miles today: 10.8
Weather: light rain

"Humans can always be relied on to assert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid."--Dean Koontz, "Seize the Night"Hoover¢s recipe for a bellylaugh: Take one female hiker wearing a fanny pack, have her cut foot-holes in the bottom of a brown plastic garbage bag, insert feet, pull it up, and cinch it at the waist. Now have her waddle down the trail in front of her hubby. Hoover nearly fell off the trail laughing. When he pointed out to me that I looked like an exceptionally large-bottomed woman wearing a brown plastic diaper, I got the giggles, too.So you're wondering what's up with the garbage bag??? We decided to do without our rain pants and shipped them home. Hoover now wears a poncho that comes to his knees, so his shorts don't get wet in the rain. But, after hiking a day with wet shorts sticking to me, I decided to create rain shorts. I eventually modified the garbage bag to be a rain dress that was open at the bottom and cinched just under the arms. I'll try to provide photos so you can all have a good giggle at my fashionable rain gear. Don't laugh too hard, it worked!Today we hiked a shorter distance, but were glad of it because it poured rain the entire day. I was feeling much stronger, both physically and mentally. Yesterday¢s lessons were good for me, and I am recommitted to try to make the entire hike. My foot feels a little better, but I have to watch my foot placement to avoid pain, so it slows me down some. Even the rain didn¢t daunt me, although we sometimes felt that we were walking a stream instead of a trail!As I've mentioned previously, the trail is blazed with 2"x6" white paint marks along the entire AT. What I haven't explained, is that the frequency (and clarity) of the blazes varies tremendously along various sections of the trail Some maintaining clubs refresh the paint blazes frequently and make am effort to be sure that the blazes appear frequently enough that hikers can always spot a blaze somewhere up the trail. On other sections the blazes are infrequent and faded. Hiking those sections can be very frustrating.Today there were so few blazes that we thought we'd lost the trail. I was in the lead, and with the rain and watching my foot placement, I was not paying as close attention to the blazes as I usually did. Suddenly I realized that I hadn't seen a blaze in qquite some time, and neither had Hoover. In such situations, if you turn around and look, you can usually spot a blaze in the opposite direction--but none were visible that way either! We continued to hike, keeping our eyes peeled for a white blaze, and after ten minutes, we finally spotted that blessed white paint! We were never lost. We could always have retraced our steps until we found a blaze, but retracing steps is the LAST thing a thru-hiker wants to do. It's hard enough to do the miles we have to do, without adding needless steps to the journey. If any maintainers for this section read this, please go add some more paint to this section of the trail!Hoover, unfortunately, is having some trouble with his ankle again. We have an appointment with a physician tomorrow, and he's hoping for a quick fix that will let him stay on the trail. Keep your fingers crossed for us.