Date: 2006-04-17
From: Wise Shelter

To: Dickey Gap(Fox Hill Inn in Troutdale)
Miles today: 16.1

Day 42 Monday The day began great and is ending great. The best thing I can say about the middle is that I didn't die.   THE BEGINNING: I had a great night's sleep, with few interruptions (just moonlight in my eyes) and cool, breezy weather. After a good breakfast of hot coffee and bacon/cheese grits, I started out. The walk through the open fields, balds, and high altitude evergreen forests was like yesterday-inspiring and quite enjoyable. THE END: Piece of Work and I hitched a ride to Troutdale in less than 5 minutes. Our first stop was the social center of town, the Troutdale Trading Post (and flea market). We bought a few food items for hiking and ordered supper. I had an open-faced roast beef sandwich (gravy on roast beef on mashed potatoes on toast) with green beans, cole slaw, and a big glass of milk. Troutdale has 2 overnight options for hikers-a hostel at the Baptist Church and the Fox Hill Inn, a B&B with a special rate for thru hikers. The operators for the FHI are former thru-hikers themselves (Full Moon and Celestial Spirit, NOBO,1995). We called the Inn and Janet(Celestial Spirit) picked us up. This B&B looks like a wealthy "gentleman farmer's" home, overlooking pastures with mountains all around. It has gardens, terraces, and great views. What it doesn't have is many guests. Piece of Work and I are the only ones here, and we have the whole place to ourselves-laundry, satellite TV, library, kitchen, etc. The rate for us will be $25 each plus $3 for a load of laundry. Breakfast and a free shuttle to Dickey Gap are included. The beds are high-quality and covered with quilts. This is the best deal on the Trail that I've seen so far. If there's more luxury for the money, please let me know.   THE MIDDLE: All the trouble started because after 7.6 miles of hiking, we cross a road and creek, where a sign says the next shelter is 1 mile ahead. As I climb a long ridge, I hear thunder in the distance, and as usual Piece of Work is ahead of me. After 25 minutes of faster and faster walking, I am sure I am near the shelter. So when the rain starts(in sheets),I stop and put on my pack cover but not my rain pants, since I'm confident I'll be at the shelter in a couple of minutes. I start almost running (I'm now on a level ridge line) and pass Piece of Work putting on his rain jacket and yell out "It's more than a mile". (The rain pants pull down over the tops of my boots and keep my socks and inside of boots dry).   I am walking as fast as I can, being soaked by a thunderstorm with lightning coming nearer and nearer, trying to watch for a shelter or at least a sign to a shelter. I climb another long grade to the upper ridge line, so I'm now a better target for lightning. I'm convinced that I've missed the shelter-go back or keep going? I keep going. That's when the hail starts-not big enough to damage but stinging nevertheless. For maybe 15 minutes I keep going, almost running, in a constant downpour, thunder and lightning around, on a trail that is now a fast moving creek. My socks (and worse, the inside of my boots) are soaked. Finally, the trail switches back and starts down off the ridgeline, but the rain doesn't diminish. Near the bottom I know I've missed the shelter but am not sure where the next point for relief might be. I start thinking about possible hypothermia and whether or not I should stop and try to set up my tent, so that I could get out of the rain and into dry clothes and the sleeping bag, while ensuring that the inside of the tent would be wet, too. I pass a camping space and seriously consider stopping, but it's still raining and I figure a moving target is harder to hit. Good thing I didn't stop-about 100 yards later I come to the sign to the new shelter. Turns out the distance from road to shelter is 2.2 miles, not 1.0. Had I known that, I would have had my rain gear on before it ever started raining, knowing I would not reach the shelter before the rain. At the shelter I met Grizzly and his parents and vented my anger at the incorrect sign. I also changed into dry clothes and wrung water out of my socks. Piece of Work came in shortly thereafter, with a similar story. He was convinced he had missed the shelter and that I had found it. After almost an hour of trying to dry out a little, eat some lunch, and redress for the trail, we start out. Then the sun comes out.