Date: 2011-08-07
From: Lake of the Clouds Hut

To: Dry River Shelter #3
Miles today: 3.0

8/07/2011Time: 6:30 p.m. DISTANCE TRAVELED: About 3 miles, plus or minus. FROM/TO: From Lake of the Clouds Hut to DryRiver Shelter #3 WEATHER: It started to rain some time after midnight, and continued to 3:30 p.m. or so. The sky remained partly cloudy the rest of the day. It was very foggy on the mountain, and we could only see about 30 feet. MEALS: The Hut provided pancakes and oatmeal, but neither were very good. I had Pop-Tarts and sweet tea on our first break, at the shelter. After a nap, I ate two Power Bars and drank some water. For dinner I had a Chicken Rice mix mixed with a package of chicken flavored Ramen noodles. ROAD/TRAIL CONDITIONS: The trail sucked! It was not well marked. The stone pillars were too far apart in the fog, and too many different paths came together by the Hut. We ended up on the wrong trail. Trees had fallen across the path, so we would have to climb over them, or under them, or bushwhack a path around them. It was raining, too, so everything was slippery. SHELTER USED/SLEEPING QUARTERS: I slept at the Dry River Shelter #3. PEOPLE MET, HIKED WITH OR SEEN: I hiked with Achilles. We met two hikers just out for the weekend, and a section hiker named ¢Fool.¢ His wife gave him the name, saying that at 74 he¢s a Fool for trying to hike the A.T.  ANIMALS SEEN: None to speak of. MONEY SPENT OR SAVED: No money spent today. MAIN CONCERN OF THE DAY: My main concern today was safety. Hiking down steep mountain sides in fog and rain is stressful, especially when the whole time you are not even sure you are on the trail you want to be on. We were not! SPECIAL NOTES: The AMC sucks at marking the Trail, and their ¢up-keep¢ of the Trail is the same. But if you pay big bucks for the Huts, your trails are well signed, marked and maintained. Go figure!  SUMMARY FOR THE DAY: Hmmmm, where to start . . .            Well, after ¢lights-out and quiet time¢ was imposed last night (apparently only for guests,) the Hut¢s staff had a little party that went on until 12:00 a.m.            Then paying guests just did not know how to walk quietly through the dining area, where hikers were trying to sleep, as if we could!            No one in the whole place knew how to close a door without slamming it. All night, just as I would doze off, ¢SLAM!¢            About 4:00 a.m., finally, everyone quieted down, but at 5:00 a.m., staff started banging around in the kitchen making breakfast. And by 6:00 a.m., early rising guests began to come into the dining area for coffee and conversation.  So all the hikers started getting up and packing up, ill-rested.            We waited for the paying guests to eat and head out so that we could eat the left-overs. Once fed, about 9:00 a.m., we headed out into the rain and fog.           We couldn¢t see far at all, and the signs sucked. There were no white blazes to be seen, and only stacked stone pillars to mark paths. All paths above the tree lines are marked with stone pillars. Well, Yeah! We ended up taking the wrong path. ¢Dorothy we¢re not on the ¢A.T.¢ anymore!¢ It felt wrong to me to head down the mountain so soon. I was tired, wet, and not thinking my best.            Anyway, we were on the Dry River Trail. It almost parallels the A.T., but it goes down into a valley and not over the ridge. We discovered which trail we were on when we saw a sign saying that you can¢t camp within a quarter mile of an AMC Lean-to. We headed to the Lean-to to get our bearings, to dry out, and to figure out a plan.           We decided to stay on the Dry River Trail another 6 miles to the main road, and after re-supplying at the campground store, head to the A.T. which was 3 miles down on the same main road.            We had just taken the low road in bad weather. The weather had something to do with it, but I think it was mostly because of our lack of sleep.            We decided to do a ¢near-o¢ (near zero day.) We walked almost nothing, took naps, and ate. We are feeling anxious, but tomorrow is a new day. We will be restocked and back on track by day¢s end tomorrow.           I¢m just hiking my own hike. I seem to overcome each challenge as it comes and move on. The ¢purist¢ would say that I am not a true thru-hiker because I didn¢t go back the three miles to the A.T. Well, I guess that¢s just too bad. The A.T. changes every year, and I¢m hiking My A.T.           I finished reading The Survivors Club today, and now on to finishing The History of Zen.           So, I¢m going to read some more, and then rest up for tomorrow¢s hike. ¢Night. TTFN.