Date: 2003-03-23
From: Black Gap Shelter

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: broken clouds

What a great day! The weather was beautifully sunny with temperatures in the upper 60s. Last night was a real experience. It was my first time ever sleeping in a shelter and the mice were really bad. I had one in my sleeping bag-I just rolled over and saw it come running out right next to my face. Another one actually ran across the top of my head! Palmetto had one in his hair, I mentioned that to another thru-hiker today and he said the mouse was probably getting hair to build its nest. Strange. Well tonight I am writing this entry from the tent. My food and anything else I have that smells good is all safely hanging from the bear cables. I'd never seen them before. It's a cable strung between two trees about 15 feet off the ground and this cable has 6 pulleys attached to it that have an S hook on one end and a carabiner at the other end. The carabiner attaches to an i-bolt that's screwed into a tree that allows you to suspend the bag - pretty nifty.There are lots of water sources along the trail; many more than I thought. I am carrying too much water. When I got to camp this afternoon I still had about 2 liters left. Tomorrow I'll carry the Nalgene with Gatorade and 2 liters in the bladder to see how that feels. It will definitely lighten my load. My big problem right now is my backpack- it sucks! I can't adjust the torso length properly because the strap on the inside that allows for adjustment is only attached by a 2 inch by 3 inch piece of velcro that doesn't stay in place well. What happens is the hip belt starts to slide off my hips and down around my waist then the shoulder straps bear all of the weight and end up hurting my shoulders & chest. I am trying something new tomorrow, I'll report back to tell how it worked. I hiked with Palmetto today again. He's also tented after last nights mousecapade. I also met a bunch of people- most like me... trailnameless. A few of the folks I met were Woodpecker, Turtle, Hopeful, Elizabeth, Liz, Arthur, Steve, another Steve, Moose, and a bunch of others. I had talked to Hopeful before on the AT-L about Civil War history along the trail. I heard of Moose from Footslogger & Footslogger helped me out a lot in planning and gear choices. Once again, all really cool people. It's amazing how everyone I meet has a different story about how they ended up here. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and they are all so willing to help out anyway they can. It's my first night on the trail officially and I already feel so lucky to be here. I don't know how far I'll go tomorrow and I really don't care. I'll just listen to my body. When it says to stop, I'll stop. I slept in as late as I wanted today, I got 11 hours of mouse-interrupted sleep. I think I finally got going at around 9 am. I was talking to Elizabeth at the end of the night, right before everyone went to bed. We were saying that only one or two people out of 10 statistically make it to the Special K, there are about 30-40 thru-hikers staying here at or around the shelter tonight. It sure does make you think. I hope we all make it, and break some sort of record or something. But for all the reasons people start a hike, there's probably twice as many for ending it early. I hope I never find one of those reasons. Good night!