Date: 2010-06-07
From: campsite 1.1 mi north of Dick's Dome S.

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: light rain

What a day! Whew! I started the day off the wettest I have been since Springer. Although we went to bed with a crystal clear starry sky, we awoke at 3:15am with rain on our faces. The forecast held only a 10% chance of precipitation throughout the night, but that 10% found us and poured! I'm almost embarrassed to write about the series of events, because we should have known better, but I will just in case anyone else is tempted to do the same thing. We were lying on the tarp from Braids' hammock, sleeping soundly, when a light rain started. We sprang into action, she gathering all of our stuff into our packs and covering them while I pulled the tarp off my hammock and got it into position. We pulled it over ourselves and laid back down, forgetting one tiny little detail- the tarp below us. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that when the rain hits the exposed parts of that tarp, it would run to the lowest point- us. We were dry and cozy for a while and I think I even drifted to sleep a bit, but as soon as the rain picked up and got heavy, a pool formed beneath us quite quickly. I felt the rain soak into my sleeping bag and realized that we were essentially in a swimming pool. We just got up in the middle of the rain and started packing up and were off, absolutely sopping wet, by 5:15. So much for a good night's sleep! By about 6:30, we had hiked the 3 1/2 miles to Ashby Gap. Braids, who knew she had to end this year's hike at Harpers Ferry anyway, was in some pretty serious knee pain, as well as soaked and generally miserable. She tends to push extremely hard, often even when it's bad for her. Given all of this, I was very proud of her for making the tough decision to end her hike a little earlier than planned and take care of her health. She hitched on up to Bears Den Hostel and even took my soaked sleeping bag and a few other things with her, seriously reducing my pack weight.I hiked hard and fast through the roller coaster, getting some new and exciting blisters from my wet boots and socks. It certainly wasn't my favorite day of hiking, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, either.By early afternoon, I had arrived at Bears Den Hostel, a delightful sanctuary. I absolutely love this place! After catching up with Braids on our days, I had a great shower and changed into the clean clothes they had for our use. We were able to do ALL of our laundry tonight! We hung out with Seeker and other hikers while scarfing down pizza and soda. (Plus salad- thanks, Hopeful!) After dinner and finishing laundry, Braids, Seeker, and I took our Ben & Jerry's down to Bears Den Rocks to watch the sunset. It was a perfect evening! I'm completely stuffed but very dry and happy. Braids has a shuttle to Harpers Ferry all lined up for tomorrow, and she will also take our packs with her. I have my stuff all ready to go, with the lid of my pack all set up as a fanny pack. I'm going to try to get out really early tomorrow.One cool thing- the Hiker special at Bears Den is awesome- bunk, shower, laundry, a Tombstone pizza, a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and a soda for $27.50. Perfect! I honestly probably could have split the pizza and ice cream with Braids, but sometimes as a hiker it's just good to stuff yourself!Postscript, June 8, 2011: You know, it's funny- a year later, I don't remember the blisters or misery of being soaked from this day. Instead, I remember how amazing that evening at Bear's Den was and the hilarity of the whole scene early that morning. That said, pulling a tarp over us but leaving the edges of our groundcloth exposed is truly one of the dumbest things I did on the trail. At least that lesson really soaked in (pun fully intended)!