Date: 2015-06-01
From: Marble Springs Campsite

To: Punchbowl Shelter
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: light rain

Today is the first of June. It's also the first time I got hailed on during this hike.I was supposed to go to Glasgow today but at the first break, when chatting with Gunner and Good Enough, I changed my mind. I had plenty of food for another day and a half and this would prevent me from having to hitch the 6 miles into town. Also, I didn't really want to stay in town because that would mean a 7 mile day, but there weren't many good options to camp after town. There is a hostel that we would reach tomorrow that comes to pick you up as part of the deal, which is more my thing than hitch hiking. That said, Dr. Pickles and Mockingbird did go to Glasgow and they had a ride before we crossed the road, so apparently it would have been easy.Before we got there though, we got to cross the longest foot bridge on the trail, going over the James River. It is also named after a James Foot who thru hiked the AT and was past trail club president. He and his wife were also the first ones to hike the ADT. After the bridge and the road to Glasgow, we climbed a bit to the next shelter where we had lunch. Just after we got there, it started raining so we moved from the picnic table into the shelter and waited it out for about 45 minutes or so. Gunner took the opportunity to make reservations for the four of us (also Good Enough and McFly) at the hostel tomorrow.Once the skies cleared, McFly, Gunner and I left, while Good Enough, who had arrived a bit later, finished up. We were to go up a 2000 foot climb as soon as we left the shelter and we hadn't gotten 20 minutes into it when the skies opened up again. It was a torrential downpour but fortunately it was warm. After 10 minutes or so of this, I was wet through my underwear. I hadn't put on my rain suit because it was warm and it had rained hard enough for long enough that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. As we started getting higher on our mountain, we became more exposed to the rain and there was now some wind as well so it was getting cold. Probably not the best place to be when still recovering from a cold, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Fortunately this didn't last long, but we did see hail mixed in with the rain! The trail was now a total stream so we were wading through puddles as we were trying to make forward progress. There was thunder, but I never saw or heard lighting, which is good.After maybe 30 minutes, it stopped raining and the sun came out for a bit. Not enough to dry us or anything, but it was nice while it lasted. Then the rain came back and soaked us some more. I couldn't have been wetter if I had been hosed down with a fire hose.On the bright side, when we got an indication where we were, it turned out to be further along than we thought. We were completely past the climb (with one more to go later on). It had now stopped raining and McFly and I were hiking together and chatting, which made the time go by faster. We also took pictures of our bedraggled state, but unfortunately my camera was set to some weird setting and our heads are cut off. We caught back up with Gunner just before the final climb before the shelter and I couldn't keep up with them. But the weather had done an about face again and it was now very pleasant out. There was only one person when we got here, a section hiker who had called his wife and gotten a forecast of heavy rain pretty much all night. And indeed, as I'm typing this journal entry, it is coming down heavily, with thunder and lightning to boot.I am in dry clothes in my as of yet dry tent and hopefully that situation will be unchanged by tomorrow morning. Either way, it is only 11 miles to the hostel pick up point where we can dry out.Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?