Date: 2004-05-08
From: Spence Field Shelter

To: Silers Bald Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night I woke up a few times and lay on my back looking up at the stars through the roof of my tent before going back to sleep. Each time I realized how content I am to be exactly at this spot doing exactly what I am doing at this exact moment. I felt great joy and gratitude being in the North Carolina (or is it Tennessee?) woods, sleeping out and experiencing this aspect of life. Literally, I am a happy camper.Everyone who spent last night at Spence Field Shelter was up and at various stages of having breakfast and packing up when a Park Ranger arrived and called everyone together for a well-deserved lecture. I didn¢t realize that having a reservation for a Shelter in the GSMNP meant that you were to stay INSIDE the Shelter, not just in the Shelter area. The Ranger could have issued us $50 tickets but let the lecture suffice. (He did, however, issue tickets to people who stayed at Spence Field Shelter when their permits indicated that they should be elsewhere.)In-spite of its rocky beginning the day was a good one ¢ sunny and warm although much more humid. At first, I couldn¢t figure out why I felt so slow and logy and why I consumed two times my normal intake of water and until I realized that it was the humidity that was weighing me down. I do not do well in humidity. I had a leisurely lunch at Derrick Knob Shelter and while there I met ¢Freebird¢ who is from Hawaii, where he has been a professional Windsurfer and has done a Thru Hike once before. He is a very interesting young man. When I was leaving the shelter, Ginna and Lucy two college-aged cousins out for a few days of camping, arrived looking quite exhausted. They obviously had over-packed and were carrying far more than was appropriate given their needs and physical conditioning.That afternoon, I arrived at Silers Bald Shelter around 5:30 pm having watched a line of thundershowers form over the adjacent peaks, and wondering if /when one was going to come my way. When I came into the shelter ¢Free Bird¢ was there and said that a bolt of lightning had just struck the bald about 200 yards further up the hill. The weather was really starting to close in and so at 6:30 pm, having finished a quick beef stew dinner, I emptied my pack and donned my rain gear and headed back south down the trail to see if Ginna and Lucy needed some help.I ran into Ginna, she was about a quarter mile from the shelter, and seeing she was not in the need of help, I continued on to find Lucy. She was a mile further down the trail, just about to begin the steep descent to the shelter when I found her. I took her pack (it must have weighed over 50 lbs.!) and gave her my empty one and we climbed back up to the shelter just beating the rain by minutes. Right on our tails were ¢Shannon¢ and ¢Swedish,¢ as well as, ¢Cowboy,¢ ¢Atlas¢ and ¢Barney¢ had come in while I was looking for Lucy, which made for a very good group of fun people for the night. Very quickly the storm became fierce-no make that ferocious- with cold driving torrents of rain and hail the size of marbles. Another bolt of lightning ripped the air around us striking the shelter. In its wake was the unmistakable smell of nitrogen left behind from the sudden release of energy. In hindsight my ¢Trail Angel¢ assistance to Lucy probably kept her from being caught in that mess, which is good.We¢re all inside the fenced in shelter tonight (as we¢re supposed to be!) and, after a fun evening of storytelling and laughter, it¢s now quiet time for journaling, reading, planning tomorrow's trip and for me, sleep.