Date: 2003-08-04
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Date: 8.4.03Starting Location:Rod Hollow ShelterDestination: Bears Den HostelMileage: 9.9   Now, I know you are sick and tired of hearing me talk about how rockythetrail is! So, I won't tell you that todays trail was rocky...we'll callit...um...dimensionally challenged! Today, we did the first ten miles of asection that is dubbed "the rollercoaster". It is ten big, ugly steepascents and descents within 13 miles, and every single bit of it isamazingly rock...er, I mean, dimensionally challenging! I figured that allthe talk about this section of trail was blown out of proportion....Imean,the above description could be used on just about any section of the AT!But....I was wrong. This was hard, hard, hard!! Completely drenched in sweat, I struggled up steep hills and down rockydescents all day long. My pace would have been fine, if it had not beenforall of the rocks! Big, giant piles of them! By the end of the day, bothfeet were throbbing and I just wanted to be done.   Three miles from the end, I came upon Bumpkin sitting on a rock besidethe turn off to a shelter. "Do you have three miles left in you?", sheasked. "Have some faith in me!", I said with a grin. It was then that Irealized that she had been waiting almost an hour for me, and was totallywilling to change our plans if I wasn't feeling up to it! That in iselfwould be wonderful if it were just an ordinary day, but we are headed toBears Den Hostel!! That means a hot shower, clean clothes, pizza and Benand Jerrys! Can you believe that Bumpkin would be willing to put that onhold for me!?!? I am telling you, I have the most compassionate, loving,caring hiking partner out there! For those of you that worry aboutme....know that I am in good hands!   After I sent her on her way, I proceeded to hike...and hike....andhike.This three miles was turning into the longest three miles in the entireworld! And to make things worse, there were three more big giant ups anddowns! I got tireder and tireder and my feet just continued to throb. Bythetime I got to the foot bridge that signaled .6 of a mile to go, there wasnot much of me left. I was on the verge of tears as I headed up yetanother500 foot climb. I wasn't sad or depressed. They were tears born of sheerexhaustion.   As I dragged myself around the last curve, the sun was starting to setand it was thundering. As the wind picked up, I looked up to see a shinyredand white thing glistening in the middle of the trail. A cold diet cokewith condensation dripping down its sides. Now, if that isn't magic, Idon'tknow what is! My amazing trail partner had dropped off her pack at thehostel, purchased the drink, and hiked back down the trail to leave it forme. Wow!!   Well, three diet cokes, an entire frozen Tony's Pizza, and half a tubofBen and Jerrys later....I feel almost human. Emphasis on the 'almost'!Bumpkin had just as hard a day as I did, and after hot showers and cleanclothes, neither of us feel up to talking about tomorrow yet. We are bothina lot of pain, and tired as can be, so we both agreed that we would waituntil tomorrow to decide on how far to hike. For the time being, I canlivewith that! :)Love, Anna aka Mud Buttwww.trailjournals.com------------------------------Local access to PocketMail mobilee-mail now available in Europe, NorthAmerica & Australia http://www.pocketmail.com