Date: 2012-05-08
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: Big Bald Shelter
Miles today: 10.1

At 2:30 am this morning it began to rain and it was still pouring at 5:30 am when I woke up for keeps.At 6:00 am I decided to start to get organized for the day, but only half-hardheartedly - the other half wanted to stay put and wait out the rain. By 7:30 am had done everything I could without leaving the tent. I had eaten a cold breakfast with no coffee, and curled back up in my sleeping bag. I had put on my hiking clothes and curled back up in my sleeping bag. I had packed everything in my pack that I could except for my sleeping bag in which I was curled up when, to my surprise, the rain did stop. So I packed up my wet tent and headed off into the grey, dank fog that blew thru the trees limiting visibility to only 40 to 50 yards in every direction.I was aware that the rain had made the footing slippery, (taking tentative steps) but even so, I still slipped in the mud and took a fall. Fortunately, nothing was seriously damaged (a very sore rib is all, I think) but the realization that it only takes one quick slip like that could ruin my plans for finishing the Trail on this outing could be dashed is chilling.I had gone a couple hours and had made it beyond Sam's Pass where the AT goes under I-26 and had begun the 2,600' climb to the top of Big Bald Mountain when, to my surprise, who did I see coming down the Trail toward me, ¢Solex¢ who was heading back the way she had come and alone. As she approached I could see that she was crying and before I could finish saying "What's happened?", she had her head on my shoulder, her hands own at her side and was sobbing like a little, heartbroken girl. She and her fiance had had a falling out and she was hurt and frightened and wanting to get away from him, from the AT, and from everything. It was very sad. A few minutes after she left with a plan to go back to Sam's Gap and call a Hostel in the area, where a worker could come and pick her up. As I climbed a very forlorn-looking Oden passed me heading in the same direction as ¢Solex¢ but at a much slower pace. The Trial is a tough pace for a relationship as it brings out all kinds of stresses, new experiences, feelings and allergies. I hope the best for them, whatever that might be. I also hope she gets to finish her hike.After a very long climb along the ridge leading to the Big Bald, I passed a group of South Bound hikers who helped me try to recall that they were friends who had met and made on the Trail several years before. After talking a while, it was like a family reunion, we were happily talking about where we had met, recalling the ¢Good 3l Days). When I got to the shelter, I read the Shelter Journal and realized that one of them was "Patches" whom I met in Georgia with his wife, "Saint" back in 2004 when I was first starting out. When he finished his 12-year section hike in 2007 I had dropped him a congratulatory email. It would have been nice to have made a connection on the Trail when I am so close to finishing my hike. Bummer!I made it to the top of Big Bald and the clouds lifted so I could see the trail ahead over Big Stamp Mountain as well as some of the surrounding mountain terrain. But not for long. I headed down the Trail and stopped under some trees and ate some tuna fish as a rain shower blew in. By the time I finished my snack, the rain had stopped but the visibility couldn't have been any more than 50'. I "brailed" my way the final mile to the Big Bald Shelter and joined ¢Fool¢ and ¢Horse¢ (a couple about my age from St. Louis) and ¢Spiderman¢ (a Virginian doing a one hundred mile section). They all had settled in for a rainy afternoon. I spread out my sleeping bag in the shelter, curled up in it and went to sleep for two hours. I was trashed!At 5:00 the shelter was full (this is a big one with space for five below and an upper deck for five more. I ate Raman noodles for dinner and had some warm tea. And as soon as I finished this sentence I will -- you guessed it -- curl up in my sleeping bag once again and head off to dreamland with the hope of a drier, warmer day tomorrow.