Date: 2008-04-23
From: seeley-woodworth shelter

To: maupin field shelter
Miles today: 20.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Well, as predicted we slept amazingly last night, pretty much through the night for all of us. Once again it rained in the night, but just a little early on, just enough to say it rained four days in a row.Minor ups and downs for the first little bit of trail. Noting much of note.We climbed a little to the top of The Priest. Obviously lots of jokes on the way up...some interesting rock formations too... A southbound dayhiker with a superiority complex sarcastically remarked it was far easy the way we came up it. I'd like to see him come here from Georgia... We just let it be.There were supposed to be great views atop The Priest, but sadly we couldn't find them. Well, onward down, down, down, down, down. Yes, that is five downs in there. We went straight down three thousand feet in a little over 4 miles. Holy switchback Batman. Rocky too, almost got dizzy from the rocks and switchbacks.Got to the bottom with numb feet and shins, may have a case of the shin splints starting up. Stretching a lot to hopefully head it off.We had lunch at the bottom by the Tye River {the reason for the drop}. Good stopping point because we had to cross the river and gain all the elevation we just lost. Ah well, that's the AT for you.The bridge across the river was another one of those cool foot suspension bridges. Finally got some pics of this one because it wasn't raining this time. Then up, up and awaaay.The first thousand feet were very steep at times, like losing traction as if I was spinning my tires. We pulled straight up it though and stopped at a shelter after that first thousand.The shelter was right next to a raging stream with cascading waterfalls down its length. Really sweet. We were tempted to stop short here, but we all agreed we should push on. Cameled up on water because there was no more till the next shelter.I couldn't resist so I dunked my head in the stream. Very cold water but it was getting hot out. Very refreshing, though I may have permanently contaminated the stream with the runoff from my sweaty unwashed head...Onward upward. Still really steep, but it gets better. Now we were into the rocks. When I say rocks, I mean the trail was rocks, no dirt. At all. A hiker's dream. Climbed for another thousand feet and took a break at a nice outcrop.Onward upward once again. Lots of nice views because of all the rocks, but tough trail. A little bit of hands climbing too.As we were finally starting to near the top, we came across two deer grazing. We took some far off pictures, and we kept getting closer but they didn't move. In the end we got within about 30 feet of them and they didn't even care. They couldn't have run though because of the steep rocky terrain.Finally got to the top. That was the biggest climb we've seen so far, but unfortunately not the biggest on the trail unfortunately. Not by a long shot.We showed the mountain our appreciation of its viewless summit and horrendous climb when we got there, and continued on.After a mile or so of rocky descent we came to a nice outcrop. Another break. Nice to salvage something of the climb.Anther two rocky miles to Maupin shelter. Boy, is PA going to be fun. At least there won't be as much climbing.All in all, we had a very relaxed day today. We took lots of breaks and even had a slight siesta at lunch. I am training TB and BH in the "Yeti Way of Hiking". It is based around a few principles which I'll write down at some point, but its basic tenet is if you know you are doing good and have plenty of time to get to the shelter, don't rush it and stop and take breaks. Makes for happy hiking.I had a chicken Lipton for dinner tonight; a flavor I hate. I also had some extra peanut butter. I got to thinking...could I Thai it up? I figured why not try so I threw in a big spoonful. It actually turned out amazingly, much better than plain. Would definitely do it again.We had some "TV" as we called it tonight. We had our headlamps on in our sleeping bags and we were watching the mice run and jump between the rafters. Ahh, the life of a hiker, hope they don't get to the food.Only on the AT do you judge by what state a woman will be cute by.