Date: 2013-06-01
From: Stony Creek

To: campsite, foot bridge 663.3
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: scattered clouds

The first 10 min felt great with the new pack , THEN the discomfort started. The mountain we were going up was super steep and everything everywhere started to hurt. First my shoulders started acking so we stopped and readjusted that. Then it was my hips. Then my back! It took us over an hour to reach the shelter that was 1.5 miles up. On the way up we saw a deer and her fawn that looked only a few days old. Bailey chased them and caught up to the fawn. She's a shepherding dog so she nudged the fawn scaring it. It cried out so I dropped my pack and ran through rocks to try to get my dog. The mama deer ran close to Bailey trying to get her to chase her instead. When I got my dog on a leash, I saw the mama go tho her baby so I knew they were alright. This incident made me feel better about sending my dog home. We were exhausted when we got to the shelter and rested for a whole half hour. The day hikers that were there the night before had left red hot embers smoking so we put it out. We continued on up and over a flat spot which was covered in rocks. My Mom was having a difficult time with the rocks and I was having a fit with my new pack. My shoulders, hips and lower back were screaming at this point. We repacked it and adjusted everything but the shoulders would feel ok but the hips hurt or vice verse. My mom tried it on and she had trouble too. I wanted to make it 3.9 miles past the shelter to wind rock for lunch but we were just hot and tired so we had lunch just .2 mi before it. I could see a dark cloud overhead so I hurried up. We took a picture at wind rock but left quickly because we could see because we could see the storm coming. With in minutes it was pouring hard and thundering. The pack itself was supposed to be waterproof but I still used a rain cover. My pack took on water weight somewhere because got super heavy. I was soaked, it still hurt every where and we were walking in a river. There's a trail in the river! My Mom and I switched packs so we could hike the next 6 miles to the shelter quickly. I wanted to make it 6 more after that to Laurel Creek Shelter to catch up with Cozy and Redup but there was no way. It was already 6pm the sun came out just before we got to the shelter so we dried out a little before heading on. I put 2 cold rags on my hips as cushions so I could ever walk with my pack. We decided to camp just past Johns Creek just past a gravel road. We set up camp laying everything about to dry. My Mom made Mtn house lasagna which tasted pretty good. Then she started making an apple cake! I was a little bummed there were no other thru hikers to watch her make a cake but I got to watch and salivate. The pan was small so it made 2 and they were so delicious. I tried repacking my pack and putting it on but my hips shoulders and lower back bones were so bruised I couldn't even buckle the waist belt! My Mom decided we'd hitch out in the am at the road to her car and figure out what to do from there. I was really sad about not catching back up with my friends but also knew that this bad bruising needed to heal. In the morning she asked the family that had camped there last night if they could take us to our car. They could only fit her as they had kids and a whole ton of stuff. So she left with them at 8:30