Date: 2017-08-23
From: Rausch Gap shelter

To: Peter's Mountain shelter
Miles today: 17.9

Today was about water. Too much at the start, and then too little at the end. I was fortunate that the "too much" part was something I only experienced vicariously, having the serendipity to be in the shelter when a severe and unforecast storm rolled through.It became clear what I'd missed out on when, within a few minutes of leaving the lean to, I found a family group in a campsite."Did you guys stay dry last night?" Their emotive reaction to my question said more than the words ever could.It turned out they'd made some rookie camping errors, particularly when it came to choosing tent sites that were flat and smooth. These are usually because they're deposition zones of soil from rainfall.But one of these had gone one better by unwittingly choosing a tent site directly below a water bar on the trail, so the torrent flowing down the trail was directed to her tent."The water was about three or four inches deep and flowing straight into my tent," she explained.I said I'd been surprised none of them had come to the shelter and that I'd been there on my own. They asked if it was far away, and when I said it was less than half a mile, it added an extra layer of suffering to their experience.But, on the plus side, it seemed the trauma of their evening would mean they were unlikely to make the same mistakes again. Good judgement, the saying goes, comes from experience. And experience, the educative part of the saying continues, usually comes from bad judgment.Of course all this left me wondering how Sriracha, Sweetblood, Dirt and Switchback had got on last night, since even with their impressive ability to hike at nearly 4mph, they'd have still been short of their intended campsite when the tempest struck.The topography that was more of what I'd become accustomed to since Connecticut, when the Appalachians became a series of flat level ridges, with the trail alternating between going along these and crossing shallow valleys to go from one ridge to the next one running parallel to it.The ridge from Rausch Gap was a slight variation on this theme by having a stream running along its length, turning the original single ridge into two. The trail followed the stream, with the benefit that there was the absence of the near-constant backdrop of traffic noise that had been our companion since Connecticut.The trail itself gently climbed alongside the stream but despite the easy gradient, there was a distinct lack of campsites. But there was plenty of water, including a series of spontaneous springs bubbling out of the ground.Near the gentle pass at the top of the valley, I went past the campsite where the others had been headed and was surprised to see a mailbox. These are often used to hold trail registers, and inside was one -- including messages from the four."Woohoo!" Switchback had written. "Rain party!"Dirt added a few more details, saying they were happy to be in camp and having set up before the worst of the storm hit.The rest of the day involved dropping off this latest ridge then heading across and onto the next parallel one, to the west. My intended destination was a shelter five miles along the ridge.There was a spring a few minutes walk off trail, but my guide described an intermittent spring on trail higher up. Having watched all the springs earlier, I was pretty sure this would be flowing so I didn't bother to camel up at the lower one.And, inevitably, it wasn't. But instead of heading back down, I figured my half litre should probably last me for the five miles to the shelter.Thanks to mostly being on a level ridge in the shade of the trees, that half litre proved to be enough. Water was available near the shelter, via a 0.2 mile side trail that was notorious for its steepness.It was indeed as steep as the reputation, but I was more impressed by the effort that went into creating the 300-step rock staircase rather than my personal effort in negotiating it.I'd got in before 3pm so even with the trek to the spring, I had a leisurely afternoon with the shelter entirely to myself.Life is good.AT fact of the day: It was only as dusk fell that it seemed like I'd reached a threshold point of my hike: a day without meeting any nobos. There are still hikers heading north, but most of them will flip up to Katahdin from Harper's Ferry, the spiritual halfway point because of the ATC headquarters there, and hike back down again rather than risk being cut off by winter. Now how will we get (accurate) advice about food and hostels and (laughably inaccurate) advice about the trail?