Date: 2017-10-14
From: Kincora hostel

To: Mountaineer Falls shelter
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: overcast clouds

We didn't have to wait long to have reason to thank Bob Peoples for his unstinting trail work. As soon as we left his hostel and wandered back to the AT, we faced a long and grinding climb back up to the latest long, flat and forested ridgetop. In the process of this, we could make out where the original AT went straight up the ridge in a way that brought back unpleasant memories of Maine. But we were inordinately grateful to see that original route was being revegetated and instead we walked up a series of pleasantly graded switchbacks that crossed over the original direct route.That gratitude counterbalanced the pervading smell of cat pee that we carried with us after our night in the hostel. Sriracha and Sweetblood had opted for a bedroom because it had a door that might be able to keep the cats -- and the tomcat smell -- out. But about 15 minutes after going into the room, they found a cat on their bed, having found a way inside.They'd said the mezzanine floor was even worse for cat pee smell and since I was gagging at the smell just in the kitchen, I opted not to even go up there. Instead, I slept on the couch as the least-wrost option.Even after just one night, our reaction to the smell was more muted by the next morning, which might help explain Bob's lack of concern about the tomcat aroma. Maybe after a few years, you don't even notice it at all any more? It was something to ponder as we reached the ridgetop and began traversing along one side. For reasons not immediately obvious, we were all moving slowly this morning. Sweetblood was only one of the three of us who seemed to have some pep in her step. Dirt was somewhere ahead, aiming to spend time with a friend from university before rejoining us in two days, while 2am had opted for some alone time and camped about half a mile before Kincora. He was probably already ahead of us.We hiked nine miles in to Hardcore cascades for lunch -- even here Bob's hand was present, since Hardcore was the name of his trail maintenance crew. We were there when the Second Breakfast Club mega-crew came through in a series of small groups. We followed them for the rest of the day, arriving at Mountaineer Falls shelter to find them already in situ, along with 2am who had been ahead of us all day. The shelter was one of the nicest ones on trail but it already seemed pretty full so after cooking dinner, we opted to camp on the ridge above.Today was a pretty modest day with one big climb in the morning and mostly just traversing after that. Not sure why I'm so tired, but tomorrow we're meeting one of Sriracha's college friends to stay at his aunt's mountain house so we'll have a nero in which to recuperate.Life is good.AT fact of the day: As befits the sobo demographic, where most of those on the trail southbound are new college grads because graduation is too late for a northbound hike, most of the members of the Second Breakfast Club are in their early twenties. Beast came up to me today as his crew soared past and complained about everyone in his crew being younger than him and how he struggled to match them for pace and endurance. And he's 32 -- just over half my age. I told him I understood!