Date: 2008-06-03
From: Harpers Creek Shelter

To: Paul C. Wolfe Shelter
Miles today: 22.0

I slept okay last night. I figured that to be more comfortable in my sleeping bag I need to unzip it from the bottom and the top to get more air. Excellent. We left the shelter and had an enormous climb. The first part I motored up pretty good. It was hot but cloudy which helped a bit. Still, I had water dripping off of me. There was a lull in the incline and we took a break. After that I sort of lost my momentum and zest for climbing. I sort of ho-hummed my way up the second half. Three Ridges was a wooded summit, so after all that hard work we didn¢t even get a pretty view. We stop by Maupin Shelter for a snack and Gator comes by and tells us he just saw a four feet rattlesnake on the Trail, just 50 yards back. I am tempted to go look but then I decide against it. No need to go chasing dangerous animals. We hike on to Three Ridges Overlook and I¢m excited to be able to see what we have just climbed. But alas, no. That view spot has not been trimmed back for years and years so we aren¢t able to see a darn thing. We stop and have lunch anyway. I am able to get service here and leave Miss Lucy a singing birthday message, so I feel a little better. We do hike on and find a viewpoint. It¢s a rock jutting out and you can see the ridgeline to the left and the valley below. It is pretty. We hang out for a bit and take some photos. Brad insists on being queer and posing in odd ways, like senior photo poses. It¢s quite funny. Then we go to Cedar Cliffs which has the same views, but way more open. It¢s crazy to look and see how high we¢ve climbed. It¢s really pretty amazing. At Dripping Rock parking area we meet Alf who gives us Trail magic of pepsi and little Debbie snacks. Brad and I sit and enjoy the magic with Sunbeam, Bilge Rat, and Gator. I am not feeling that motivated and we still have a long way to go. The sky is threatening rain; it¢s getting darker and darker and grumbling. And so we get moving. Humpback Mountain has a great ledge to sit on and enjoy the views but as we pass by it is starting to rain and the wind is whipping. It actually makes me a little nervous. We put on our pack covers but not our rain clothes, it¢s way too hot out. It starts to rain and we start to move. We do have time to stop when we see a trash bag hanging from a tree. Upon closer inspection we find it to be full of little Debbie snacks and as we sit down on the rocks we see that the stream if full of ice cold pepsi cans. Apparently Alf had been here too! He does maintenance on this section of the Trail and must have been out working today. Thank you, Alf!We pass a lovely looking campsite but we both decide to push on. It starts raining but the canopy of trees lessens the blow. Until it starts pouring, then we get wet. It is cold and startling at first but then it¢s refreshing and feels good. It really helps to cool us off. It starts getting dark and as we start going downhill I start to get cold. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I start counting all the bright orange salamanders I see. They seem to come out when it¢s rainy and wet. This helps to keep my mind off how badly my feet hurt. It¢s not so much my feet, but my toes all go numb and hurt something fierce. I count 48 salamanders until we get to the shelter. We walk in the dark seeing the Trail by the contrasting colors of the rocks. It starts to get pitch black and dangerous though, so we stop and put our headlamps on. AS we hear a river we see lights off in the distance. We realize it¢s headlamps, the snackpackers at the Paul C. Wolfe Shelter. In order to get there though we have to go through Mill Creek. It is dark, rainy, foggy, wet and slippery. Not a good combination for a creek crossing. I nearly dump it into the water but somehow manage to pull it off, but I¢m not sure how. We run up to the shelter and find it full of our friends. Plus, we have finally caught up with Hi-Lo and Steadfast! Yeah!The shelter is big, with two stories and the picnic table under the overhang so there is plenty of dry area left for us. We set up our beds inside and socialize for a bit. No dinner, we filled up on little debbies, plus it¢s 9:30pm, we¢re wet, cold and tired. It was a 22 mile day. Too many miles and so we just crash out.