Date: 2019-03-09
From: Little Laurel Shelter 

To: Hogback Ridge Shelter 
Miles today: 22.8

AT Day 21 22.8 miles to Hogback Ridge Shelter  I¢m posting this 9 March journal entry on 11 March at Uncle Johnny's Hostel so I had no idea about the great news I was going to get from Zpacks about my pack. Zpacks is sending me a new pack! How¢s that for customer service. I thought I should include this good ZPacks news now because I¢ve been complaining about my pack for so long. Today I would get the pleasure of hiking up Firescald Knob this morning. It has raw natural beauty in its rugged granite construction and the 360 degree views it provides for those hikers that are strong and brave enough to navigate the convoluted path.I left camp around 7 this morning feeling very tired from having my sleep disturbed by a section hiker that is very accomplished at snoring. He warned us that he snores and apologized in advance but that didn¢t help me sleep any better. In fact nothing could wake that man up. The rest of the hikers were making noises packing up before he got up and he still slept. The mornings hike didn¢t feel so good. I was tired from lack of sleep and my pack was still giving me troubles. The first mile of the trail wasn¢t too bad. The kind of trail that you can just walk and not worry about tripping or slipping. I found a nice large knife on the trail. It was even engraved. It was too big for me to carry and it didn¢t have a sheath so I stuck it in a tree stump in the hopes that the owner might come back after it. Maybe it belonged to one of the volunteers that have been out recently doing trail maintenance. Soon after that, the trail started to be  covered with slushy snow. It was pretty but you had to watch out for ice patches. Then the boulders and granite slabs started.  They marked the approach to Firescald Knob. There¢s a blue blazed bypass trail for inclement weather or the faint of heart. The granite path was snow covered with some small icy sections These boulders and slabs gradually started stacking on top of each other to make up some steep precarious climbs and descents.  The boulders weren¢t arranged in an orderly fashion, no they were all jumbled up as if a giant helicopter flew over and dropped its load. Hiking on this mess was very tiring because it was steep and I had to concentrate on each step so I wouldn¢t fall and crack your head open. This rough trail led up to several cold and windy ridges that provided great views and were definitely worth the effort. The best views were on Big Firescald Knob. Urgent Cat Hole and I paused briefly to take each others pictures but the cold wind was howling so we couldn¢t linger too for too long. Post Trail Note: This section was nothing compared to the roughsections of trail that lay ahead. I definitely am spoiled by the relatively easy trails I've hiked in the Sierra and Foothills Trail (SC). It took a while to get out of this 1.4 miles of boulders and snow. Then the roots and slippery mud took over to slow me down. Then I got hours of perfectly graded trail with gradual ups and downs. Hiking on this trail reminded me of a long bike training ride where I could just effortlessly pound out a steady rhythm on my pedals. Somewhere in this area I passed the 300 mile mark.Of course all good things come to an end. At the very end of the day when I was exhausted and dreaming about food, there was a 6 mile climb up Hogback Mountain that included many super steep climbs. My pack started bothering me again The left shoulder strap kept sliding off my shoulder and I would have to keep pulling it back up. Not what you want to be doing at the end of the day. Eventually I reached some ridge lines that were shrouded in thick  clouds. I was lucky that it hadn¢t rained all day because the forecast called for gusty winds and 100% chance of rain. Up on the ridges the winds were extremely gusty and cold. A few large raindrops kept falling down. I figured it was just moisture collecting on the trees and then getting blown off. I really didn¢t want to stop and put on my rain gear. Well I made it to the shelter before the rain started. Urgent Cat Hole was already there eating dinner  I left all of my gear in the shelter and walked around 0.3 miles downhill to get water from a beautiful little stream. The forecast for this evening was for extremely high winds and rain  The fog got so dense that I had trouble finding the food hanging cables. We put a tarp across the shelter¢s opening to keep the howling wind from blowing cold rain into the shelter. In the middle of the night a large tree limbs hit the roof.  Neither one of us snores so we woke up feeling great. I¢m finishing this entry on Sunday night. I¢m at a shelter that might be haunted and I¢m all by myself, except for the creatures running across the roof and scurrying around. I have to leave all of my pack¢s pockets open so mice won¢t chew a hole in it to get any  crumbs. Happy hiking, Silver Streak