Date: 2011-10-06
From: end of the white blazes part 2

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

God always has a plan for each and every one of us, the sad thing i we never get to see the plan until it is happening. When I finally got home from the hike I figured I would take a week off to spend time with my family, get my gear ready along with my drop boxes, and so forth, then head back out on Saturday and hike south. So many people told me that I should start further south so I don't hit bad weather, but me being as stubborn as I am I just said "I will be OK." I when I went out I hiked out with "she bear" aka mom and her friend Rose, it was a lovely, slow, and relaxing to hike with them. I spent the first night in my MRS Hubba, which I borrowed from Guinness, and enjoyed it to the fullest. I did wake up at midnight wide awake and ready to hike, which was not going to happen. So instead I laid in bed and listened, to everything outside. I heard people shifting around in there sleeping bags, soft quiet snoring, and crunching of the leaves. When I heard the crunching of the leaves I got kinda worried as I was in bear country and I did not properly hang my food up. The hungry thru hiker in me was worring about having to fight a bear over food in the mid of night. Out of the sleeping bag I got and my head pops out of the tents rain fly just to see a head lamp lighting up the sky up the hill from my tent. I was glad I didn't have to fight a bear over my food as i'm not sure who would really win, or should I say would walk away in one piece.In the morning I was the first one up in my group, so I decided to keep with my normal routine I have when hiking in the woods. Only thing different was I didn't have Hopeful walking over saying "good morning sweet tea it's time for school." and my normal reply of "I'm not in school anymore..." When my group did get up to find me dressed with water heating on the stove and me packing up my sleeping bag, they looked at me and said "In a hurry?" "No, just doing the normal" my response was. They finally crawled out of their warm sleeping bag to be surprised with hot water so they can start the day with coffee. While they took a easy slow morning I went off and hiked a blue blaze trail to get rid of my energy. I hiked the Big Devils Stair case, where I was 1 bear, and walked along a canyon rim looking down at a gorge that showed all of the fall colors. The hike over to the canyon was easy but the trail after it was frowned upon, as I hiked all the way down to the gorge just to be blocked my a barb wire fence. So I had to turn around and hike back up the trail which wasn't a problem until I got hungry and realized I lost some of my trail legs. When I got back up to the shelter to meet back up with She-Bear and Rose we watched 3 guys struggle to drag a cooler full of water/ice, along with a huge unfolded tarp, and a huge backpack up the hill. It appeard to me that they parked there car at the top of the mountain on skyline drive, then hiked there gear down the mountain to sleep and party, just to find in the morning that it is harder to hike uphill while having a hang over. We started up down the AT once again, just to find us walking through a wonderful green tunnel...wait it wasn't green as it normally was known for but instead Yellow, Orange, and Red tunnel. We also found ourselves tripping over day hikers every step we take, as it was the busiest weekend the SNP has every year. We had to wait at every road crossing until there was a break in the cars just to cross. Then every overlook on the trail was taken over by leaf peepers who walk a whopping 0.2 miles to get to.