Date: 2003-06-04
From: USFS 222

To: Jenkins Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: scattered clouds

It rained all night forcing us to play the game of mental toughness; 'How long can you hold your pee?' We each managed to grit our teeth until around 9:30 when the rain finally subsided. Erin flipped open the sleeping bag revealing a nights worth of fresh pink bug bites littering her calves and feet (again) and I, somehow, got away with none. Maybe there is a sliver of validity to Erin's paranoia of insects and their apparent singled minded obsession of picking their way through mesh windows and sinking their quivering probiscus' or mandables into her soft supple flesh...Anyway, the bugs were up and out the second the rain stopped motivating us to pack up quick and get out of there. We hit the misty dirt road, Erin fifteen-twenty min. ahead as usual, and started up the steep, steady, ramp-like incline towards Chestnut Knob Shelter. The elevation profile on our map painted an easy(ier) today and we both looked forward to it.At some point during that climb up to the shelter, I can't put my finger on exactly when, my lower shin/ankle began to ache. I didn't pay much mind to it, I ache a little everyday, but it hurt a shade worse than the rest. I figured it would subside and I met up with Erin and we walked up and through the grassy field, hitting the shelter around 2:00.We huddled inside the four-walled stone shelter, reading through the shelter log, tossing back gorp, and studying the writing on the walls while the wind whipped outside. Enclosed shelters are rare along the AT and it felt comforting to hear the wind howl through the rafters while we spread our mats out on the sleeping platforms and put our feet up for a while. A hiker we had met back at the Kincora Hostel showed up not long after us and joined us in lunch. He'd been logging twenty plus days for the past four days attempting to catch some people about five days ahead. He'd spent the past week hiking with his girlfriend from Conn. taking their time. He looked a little weathered, he was a skinny kid, probably no heavier than 130 and his pack looked large in proportion to his frame. Sitting at the picinic table inside he told us he'd seen a mountain lion and it's cub a few days back.   According to the elevation profile, it was supposed to be a relatively flat walk for the next seven or eight miles followed by a downhill of equal degree to the walk up this morning. We both 'assumed' we had enough water so we didn't bother to fill up. Big mistake.The sun was high and the wind still strong and in about an hour we dipped down to Walker Gap and crossed a forest road with a USFS truck parked by the trail and two rangers leasiurely talking over the hood. Our first thought was 'trail magic!' but the closer we got the quicker we realized it wasn't going to happen. We struck conversation with the rangers who were in no hurry to get back to work and it turns out that one of them just moved from Ashland NH last year. Small world. Apparently, yet again there was water close by (although Erin and I hadn't bothered to look at the Data Book or our bladders) so yet again missed another opportunity to fill up. We bid the rangers farewell and headed back down the trail. We climbed back out of Walker Gap which was much, much steeper than the map detailed and by the time we reached the top we were drenched in sweat and thirsty. I sucked from my tube and nearly sucked my eyeballs back into my head. Erin asked if I had any water left and I told her I didn't. She said she'd just run out also. The next water source was seven miles away at Davis Farm Campsite. Farther than we both wanted but no big deal. The walk was supposed to be relatively flat so we wouldn't need to be sucking down the water. It was 'supposed' to be flat. The trail ended up being strewn with awkwardly spaced rocks and rode crest after trough like a raft in stormy seas.By the time we reached the 'campground' which I pictured to be a minicured area with a visitors center and perhaps a soda machine outside, I was seeing spots and had a mouth full of paste and I was sure Erin was in the same way. The campsite turned out to be a non-descript area with a cluster of tents pitched in its center not unlike the hundreds we'd passed on our trip thus far. A gaggle of boyscouts milled leasiurly about. I'd been thinking of water from the moment we both realized we were without and now the thought of water had become an all consuming monster. Tearing the bladder from my bag, fumbling around in nervous anticipation I asked a boyscout perched on a log casually whittling away at a stick which way to the water. "Just down the hill on the blue-blaze" There was a clearly marked arrow with a blue blaze just beneath and the word 'water' printed neatly and directly in my line of vision. I raced down.'Just down the hill' to me signifies that it was close. But instead 'Just down the hill' was much like my father's 'just around the corner' reply to the back seat when I would whine. "how far till we get there?" What he should have said was. "Down there in middle earth somewhere with bilbo baggins and the other hobbits." After every switch back I would swear. Thinking that this switchback would lead me to water. I had no patience. To make it worse the dirt slowly turned into mud which only got deeper and more slippery the further down I went. I began to hear cows. And before long I was seeing their hooves in the trail and dodging gigantic discs of shit. By the way, cow shit on your way to get water is a bad sign. I crossed over a fence into a field of more dung and eventually I got to the final dip to the water source. It was so muddy that you had to hold on to branches to balance yourself down to the water. At the bottom was a group of scouts and a few leaders filling up atleast 500,000 Liters of water. In my delerium I slipped and trying to catch my balance I knocked someone's expensive digital camera off a fence post. It hit the mud and the battery pack flew out. I appologized profusely to everyone and continued to the water, put the filter hose into the water, sucked from the filter and felt better instantly. I filled up my bag and headed up to meet Erin so she wouldn't have to wade through a half-mile of mud. When I saw her, I ran up to her and offered her my water bladder and she took three long sucks off it. I could see her eyes light up. It's amazing how quickly your psych, performance, moral drops without water and how quickly it rises with just a small amount in your system.She walked back up to our bags and just reveled in our big bag of water. Our feet were destroyed but our spirits were back up. We ended up at Jenkin's Shelter around dusk.Erin says: Once we got to the shelter, the very first thing I did was peel off my shoes and socks and get my Barbie-pink flip flops on. My heels are aching! Then I put up the tent before I set about the task of getting dinner ready. While I was doing all this, Craig struggled to hang our bear rope. It was pretty hard for him to find a good branch - I could hear him shouting out obscenities each time he threw the rock tied around the rope up into the tree. He uses the rock as a weight/anchor so that the rope will catch on a branch but come back down low enough so that we can later tie the bags. Some days he gets it on the first throw, but tonight was not one of those days. I don't even attempt to throw the rock over a branch - I worry about harming myself or anyone around me with an errant toss. Once Craig got the rope set up, he went to get water in the huge water carrier. I was working on getting our Spanish rice to absorb the water in the pot when he returned. He set the carrier down on the bench and it promptly tipped over splashing all of its contents onto me. Such is the fun of hiking. My feet were soaked! Good thing I had my flipflops on and not my shoes, or I would have sent Craig to bed without any dinner.Dinner was very good. We're trying to experiment with new meals because we are SO sick of noodle dinners! I made the Spanish rice to go in a double tortilla wrap with cheese, mayo, and turkey pepperoni. The wraps were really good, but a little messy because the rice was very wet still, and I didn't have a slotted spoon to dish with. I wolfed two down right away, I was starving! I felt bad eating and making noise with all our dinner stuff littered across the picnic table in front of the shelter because the shelter guests were trying to go to bed. Tough getting into shelters at dusk because you have to tiptoe around and try to be quiet. Craig did a great job of cleaning up after dinner tonight - as soon as I finished eating I got very sleepy and had to go lie down. I am really tired. I need new shoes. I should have replaced them back in Damascus. Ugh.