Date: 2008-08-10
From: Seth Warner Shelter

To: Melville Nauheim Shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Be careful what you wish for. Yesterday, I mentioned I was looking forward to what tomorrow will bring. Well, today, we got a bit more than we bargained for. The day started off uneventfully. We got up early and decided to skip making a hot breakfast in camp in favor of a cold breakfast after an hour or two on the trail. We got to County Road after in about 10 minutes, where we met an ex thru-hiker (forgot his name) who was waiting for someone there. He mentioned to us that he would be providing trail magic all day over at Rt 9, so that gave us some good motivation to get our day going. After about an hour or so, we stopped at a pretty overlook, where we had a quick breakfast. We then settled into the meat of our days hike. The trail continues to challenge us with all of the mud. We're doing our best to keep our feet dry, but at the expense of slowing us down quite a bit since we have to constantly pick our way around the river of mud that had once been a trail. We reached the Congdon Shelter at noon, where we ran into a slackpacking thru-hiker - Babu is his name. He is 70 something years old and still going strong. Continuing on, we reached Harmon Hill at about 1:30. It was here that we began to hear the first rumbles of thunder. It sounded distant, so we didn't think too much of it as we continued on and began our slow descent down towards Rt 9. The last 1/2 mile coming down to Rt 9 was very steep and rocky. We continued to hear the thunder rumbling ominously around us, but it still didnt' seem that a storm was imminent. Reaching Rt 9, we ran into the trail magic guy we had seen this morning. He had his pickup truck parked there and was offering all kinds of food. Since we were only section hiking, we felt a bit reluctant to indulge ourselves on the food that we felt was more deserved by those who had come all the way from Springer. There was a lady (Lipstick) who greeted us as we arrived and asked us if we had seen an older guy named Babu. We told her that we had seen him at lunchtime and that it shouldn't be too much longer before he gets here. After resting for about 20 minutes there and listening to the ever increasing rumbles of thunder, we decided it was best to get moving. We only had about another 1.5 miles to go to get to the Melville Nauheim Shelter and we wanted to beat the rain. As we headed up the trail, we passed a couple of day hikers coming down. I asked them if they had run into any rain yet and they said no and that we should make it to the shelter with no problem. Wouldn't you know it...as soon as they continued on down the trail and got out of sight, the sky opened up on us. It was as if the clouds had been holding their breath until they turned blue in the face before exploding in rain, thunder and lightning as they violently exhaled. It was useless to try to stay dry. We did get our pack covers on, but Ann later found out hers was ineffective against the downpour. Thunder and lightning was booming and crackling all around us as we picked our way up the last 1/2 mile of the now cascading trail. Finally, we reached the shelter where to no surprise, we found that it was packed with thru-hikers. Graciously, they made some room for us and we all just kind of sat there watching it pour for the next couple of hours, trying to figure out what our next move was going to be. I thought maybe we should try to sleep in the shelter since at least we would be dry, but Ann was adamant about getting the tent set up if possible. At about 5:00, the rain let up enough for us to poke around in the woods beside the shelter until we found a leafy flat spot where we could pitch our tent. Good decision Ann!! We got the tent up, cooked a quick dinner of dehydrated noodles, sauce and vegetables, then settled into the tent for the night just as another wave of rain, thunder, and lightning moved in. The rain lasted for another few hours, but we were cozy and dry in our tent. It was certainly better than joining all the rest of the "sardines" over in the shelter. I'll bet none of them got much sleep. So...we had our adventure for the day, and tomorrow it's on to the Goddard Shelter. Before it rained, the trail was already a muddy river. I can only imagine how it will be tomorrow. No complaints, though. You might as well make the best of the adverse conditions, because there is certainly nothing you can do to change them.