Date: 2012-06-06
From: Cove Mountain Shelter

To: Matt's Creek Shelter
Miles today: 29.6
Weather: light rain

I woke up early this morning. 5am. I realized it was raining right away. The loud, tight clicks of drops hitting the synthetic material right above my head was harsh compared to the soft shushing of the forest but I was thankful for it nonetheless.   It just felt right to be awake so I grabbed my food bag and ate breakfast while the rain fell. I wrote in my journal for a few hours from my hammock until the rain started to lighten up. I sprang into action at 7:30, packed everything up, and moved on down the trail. Today I was ready to cruise. I owned the decision to stop early the last few days and the cumulative reductions added up to a pretty ambitious day. I wasn't going to catch PMo unless I really got it together. Plus it was a big day up and over several very big mountains. Motivation is one of the more important things you bring with you and it doesn't really weigh much. You are capable of so much more when you want it badly enough and I was going to try my best to keep my word to meet her at Matt's Creek Shelter tomorrow morning. Doing the math, I knew it was going to be a long one. It was probably going to be somewhere between 12 and 15 hours of hiking but my pack was light, my feet were feeling rested, and I was getting a reasonably early start.I hiked with King of the Hill, from Wichita, for a few drizzly miles up to the spectacular Bryant Ridge Shelter where we ate lunch. A mix of hikers, including Jason and Jiffy Pop - but most of whom I didn't know, started piling in but I bid them farewell to continue with my big-day plan. I cruised all day, passing Cornelius Creek Shelter, a bunch of grey overlooks, and a giant FAA communications sphere atop Apple Orchard Mountain. On my way down, I found some packs poorly stashed in the bushes just after the Parkway crossing. It looked to me like some folks were slack-packing their way up and over this mountain. I walked down to Thunder Hill shelter and saw a very tired Knoxville at the picnic table. I filtered some water, ate some pasta and a big hunk of cheese, and then met Yeti, her dog, and a few other folks. They were all here for the evening. But I was on a schedule. No time to relax today. I have noticed that I seem to live my life this way too, on many different scales. I take some time for myself and then I work real hard, and then I take some more time for myself. I do this day-to-day, in five-year chunks, and everywhere in between. I headed out into the dark grey a little after 5PM. Down, up, down, down, down. It just kept going. I did manage to see a little sunset magic through the clouds as the light faded.It was dark by 9PM and the huge spiders were leaving their webs all over the trail. I felt bad running into them since they expended a lot of energy to make them and this is how they hunt. The other issue here is that you end up with a face full of web while simultaneously hoping the spiders aren't still attached. I hiked until 10 and I knew I was getting close. Just as I could start to hear the river below, it started to sprinkle. I hustled down the remainder of the switchback and saw the small orange glow of a fire. Nobody was up and I found a spot nestled on the south side of the river near another hammock. I hung up my food bag up the trail after a few ridiculous throws, a broken branch on a dead tree, and a hilarious stumble down a hill. I felt bad disturbing everyone's sleep with my ruckus but decided that at least it was entertaining. I went down to the river to wash the mud off of my legs. I turned my headlamp off at one point to be a little more discreet but almost slipped into the main pool when my rock wobbled. I made it back to the hammock and let the rain sing me her lullaby.