Date: 2019-06-09
From: Skyland Campsite 

To: Pass Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 10.9

It rained for most of the night last night, but did stop for a bit this morning. Long enough to get up and packed and head down to the lodge for breakfast. I walked in at the same time as another hiker and the host asked me if I wanted a table for two. "Oh! No, just for one please." The hiker behind me asked me if I'd like to join him and his friends. I was happy for the company. He and his two friends are thru hiking together and getting some major mileage.... 30 plus miles a day! I don't think I'd want to hike that much even if I could, but it was great to share a table with them and hear their stories. They'll be way past me for the rest of my trip, which is a bit of a theme with the shorter miles that I prefer. I meet lots of hikers who are pushing 30 mile days, so it's always a passing conversation. It can get lonely, but I'm kind of ok with it. Part of what Iove so much about hiking is the solitude. I like having people around, but also, I like not seeing them. And not having to talk to them.... Unless I want to. After breakfast, the day sucked as expected. It rained nonstop the entire day. It's still raining now, actually, and hasn't even begun to slow down. (not great considering how badly I have to pee...) My shoes got soaked almost immediately, and the rest of me followed soon after. Even with rain gear, the condensation makes its way into every layer I've got on. I did encounter two really great moments of trail magic, though, which made the hike more tolerable. The first was at a picnic pavilion that I ducked into to escape the rain and call my parents (my spot beacon died and I thought they'd probably be worried). There were no other humans (what luck!), but there were the remnants of a fire still smoldering in the fireplace. With a little poking and stoking, I got it up and running again. It was a wonderful surprise to get to warm up and dry out, even just for a half hour or so.The second bit of magic came from Mother Nature herself. On my last climb of the day, as I was soaked to the bone and freezing, it started to rain harder. I looked up to the sky and muttered a few unsavory words and thought a moment about crying. (I mean, what the heck... no one would be able to tell anyway...) I stopped to pull out the map and see how much further I needed to go. When I looked up, there was a mother deer right in the middle of the trail, looking at me. We held eye contact for a few seconds before she looked into the woods ahead of her and wandered off. As I followed her with my eyes (I wasn't about to move a muscle...), I saw her fawn. Tiny, knobby, and covered in white spots. It was beautiful. When I started to walk again, mom spooked a bit and the fawn took that as her cue. She bounded into the woods and hid, waiting for mom to tell her it was safe again. What a sight! The experience held me over for the rest of my hike and carried me into the shelter.After two cups of tea and a steaming bowl of ramen (and another tasty farm fresh butt nugget straight out the chicken), I'm all curled up in my sleeping bag, kind of dry and sort of warm.Only problem is, I still have to pee... And it's still raining. And if I'm being completely honest, hiking kind of blows.