Date: 2006-05-11
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Wise Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: light rain

Had a very nice morning after the rain last night. Bright and sunny and warm fora change. After packing up and eating a little breakfast I stopped by theshelter on the way out to find Shasta and H-Bomb had rolled in late last night. We generally have a rule not to give up on them until after 8:00pm but herelately that has surprised us way after that several times. The section oftrail from the shelter up to VA601 was really nice but just after the stile therain set in. At first it looked like it would blow on over so I just put mypack cover on and continued without my rain jacket. After all it felt prettygood and it was about time for another bath, but the higher I climbed the colderI got. Shortly I found myself stopping and getting my rain jacket out just toblock the wind but it wasn't enough. The more I walked the colder I got. Thisalso holds true for the rest of the group (Jane, Baro, Donkey and Cory). Without a shelter in sight for over 7 miles it was!time to push on by now very cold and wet. When we got to VA600 everyone wascompletly miserable and it was time for some lunch so we stopped by the road andput some warmer layers on while also eating a little. At this point the rain hadeased up a little but the temperature was still very chilly. On the way acrossthe road and starting up Mount Rogers it cleared up just enough to see thelandscape and then another wave of bad weather hit with very thick fog makingthis the second most miserable time on the trail after the hail storm in theSmokies. Shortly after reaching the ridge made it to Thomas Knob Shelter for amuch needed break. Come to find out the weather had been really bad up here allmorning and a lot of the people that stayed up here last night are staying againtonight. Baro, Jane, and I decide to try and make it to the next shelter forthe night because it is roughly 1000' lower in elevation so hopefully theweather will be better. As we start to leave!Roxy decides she had rather run around it the horse fields instead of wearing her pack, so for the next half miles I am chasseing her with two trekkingpoles in one hand and her pack in the other. Not to mention it is cold as helland the wind is blowing me around. Well you know some dogs like to roll incow/horse manure, roxy is one of them. So now I have a stuborn, wet dog thatsmells like horse s*#t. After I finally caught her and got her pack back on sheback to old Roxy and tagged along great. From here the trail starteddropping elevation but was still very rocky. The entire ridge from Mount Rogersover to Grayson Highlands State Park is nothing but rock but includes a nice fatmans squeeze for entertainment while hiking. So we finally pulled into WiseShelter around 6:15pm after a long cold day. Tonight we have Donkey, Cory,Cabernet, Chardonnay, Scarecrow, Jane, Baro, Nathan and dog, Roxy, and I for thenight. After dinner I noticed Roxy was a bit cold because the temperature isaround 40 and it is sprinkling once again so I decided to bring her in my tent to get her out of the weather. So this entry iscoming straight to you from a crowded tent that smells like horse s*#t.