Date: 2012-03-04
From: Springer Mountain Shelter

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: light rain

Last night was harsh. It was cold. Not a little cold I mean a lot cold. Ice and frost and windy mountaintop cold. But that was nothing compared to my vicious leg cramps. They hit me all over in muscles I didn't know I had and all at the same time. I was neqar sobing in pain and couldn't get them the strecth out because if I moved my legs in one way to help a certain muscle two more flared up. I finally managed to army crawl out of my bag and wrench through the pain to get them straight ahead of me. Finally relief but man I have seriously never experienced agony like that and I've broken my nose and ar before. Then came my bladder which woke me up no less then 5 times and sent me out into the cold to pee. It was all, "hey man we used to sleep ten feet down a well heated, lit hallway to a nice clean flush toilet. You changed that, not me". "Yeah well...grumble grumble...". Finally morning, grabbed my clothes dragged them into my bag with me and changed in there. Whew cold. Bee Man who I met later told me his thermostat read 25 degrees that morning brrrrrr. Still slow at packing, even though I got up before the sun was over the mountains, I ended up taking an hour and a half to get water, fetch my bear bag, pack up and get moving, wearing my cold weather gear figuring i'd take it off when I got hot hiking. Yeah no, that didn't happen. There was frost that clung to the bottom of my tent and some dirt so I think I'll cave and get a ground cloth at neel gap as it's only going to get muddier. I was cold around the hips tonight so I'm thinking of getting a fleece lining or something as it was noticeably cooler than I want to be. Luckily my bag is super stretchy and I just went ahead and closed it off all the way and curled into a ball. Today's hike was mostly downhill a flat through a whole rhododendron forest and followed a really pretty creek of substaintal size. Lots of stepping stone creek crossings today. It never got above freezing but once I was in the mountain gaps I was fine. I saw 4 army rangers in full heavy gear making their way trying to catc one another today. Once all us hikers go to the shelter we had all seen a different number so they were coming on and off the trail. The middle two kept asking how far ahead the lead was and we all gave the same about ten minutes response. I wonder if they ever caught him. I walked all day and hardly stopped. Even though I got to the shelter around one in the afternoon after 7.6 miles my feet were done and I decided this was it for the day. It's super windy so I'm sleeping in the shelter tonight to see if that will help with my heating problem any. Jimmy came in a little later and set up camp. He told me one of the guys that camped with us on springer quit that morning after one day called his wife and asked her to come get him. I knew the statistics before I butit's hard to see them in action. I can= make up my mind on this one because I don't understand why but I also firmly believe that no hiker sould judge others decisions, weight choices, gear choices, distance or reasons for being here. So for now it'll just be a thing that happened. Lac came in later and we chatted a bunch sitting around the shelter table cooking our meals and doing what all hikers do checking out each others gear. You can do all the research you want but nothing bats seeing everything in action. I'm really happy with my cooking setup though. Well time went faster than I thought. Hope I'm warmer tonight.