Date: 2018-07-23
From: Greenleaf Hut

To: Guyot Shelter
Miles today: 9.2
Weather: broken clouds

Woke with the morning light at 5am and knew it was going to be a wet day. The rain had pummeled the dinning room windows of the hut nonstop all night. (Around 1:00am the storm woke me and I went outside to the alcove to retrieve my shoes and socks. They were soaked but I brought the stinky beasts inside anyway. Yes, their utter putrescence requires outdoor storage) Repacked the whole pack in an effort to insure the contents would stay dry. Put on my wet socks and shoes. Aarrgh. Helped the crew with breakfast for the guests but didn¢t plan to stay for my chance at leftovers. Just stayed long enough for the weather report. (Yuck¢get moving) They filled my coffee and gave me pancakes for the road. (Really a cool Croo) Bid everyone in the dining room farewell and headed into the clouds. It was more than a mile back to the AT and all of it straight up Mt Lafayette. (Journal Note* The mileage total each day doesn¢t reflect all the hiking, just the ¢trail miles¢. Water, shelter, view, etc ¢spur trails¢ aren¢t included) Visibility was poor in the clouds and it was raining. At times very hard. Walked the ridge carefully as ¢wet granite is slippery granite¢. On summits the wind was strong, sustained 30-35mph, but down below tree line it stayed 20-25mph. (The huts have anemometers to show the wind speed) Wet n slow day...Hiked down through the alpine zone then back up over Mt Garfield. The real trick was coming DOWN the north face of Garfield as it was a mountaineering feat. Basically, a boulder waterfall. Using all fours, I made it down with only a few heart palpitations. Having survived that, the next biggie looming was Galehead Mtn. Cruised up to the hut on top, had a bowl of soup, and tried to dry out for a bit. Inquired about work for stay but it was too early in the day and they sent me packin.(Rats! Had hoped to stay & take on the next ¢Biggies¢ tomorrow...oh well)Headed out and on and over South Twin. It was a haul over this mountain (clips close to 5,000) but my legs felt surprisingly strong. Hooray, the first vestiges of ¢hiker legs¢! Unfortunately today called for something more akin to webbed feet...but the trail was quite beautiful from South Twin to Mt Guyot and water logged feet aside I had a great time. Was it the hiker legs? The dripping firs? The aromatic pine forest? The relentless deep puddles? It was all awesome. Parts of the trail reminded me of the ¢river-like¢ trail in The Smokies last spring. The wet rocks brought memories of the Grayson Highlands flooding back. The Weather was nasty, I looked ridiculous (grey rain skirt, lime green rain jacket, purple hat, yellow/orange swirl gaiters¢A woman at the hut this morning said I was making ¢quite the fashion statement¢. Hey, whatever works!), my feet were swimming, and yet ...the AT gave me one of the nicest hiking moments I¢ve ever had. Big old grin on my face as I rolled up to the summit of Guyot. Yep, I was the idiot laughing at nothing (maybe everything?) in the rain. Simply wonderful. Took a spur trail a mile down to Guyot shelter as it seemed a bad idea to keep marching the soaked feet. Hot spots were forming and it was time to get dry! I was the only person in the shelter so I dumped everything out of the pack, stripped bare and hung everything up. My pack towel had been saved for this moment and it was great. Put on dry undies and my puffy and made dinner. While eating, another couple arrived ...and then a few SoBos. Happy to have gotten in, got set up, eaten and in my bedroll as everyone came in looking bedraggled. Just a little journaling and off to bed. Life is Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious!Keep on Truckin!Song of Day: I had HodgePodge¢s ¢Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Into the White¢s we go¢ stuck in my head all day!((*according to the Washington weather observatory we got 2.61¢ of rain. No wonder my feet got pickled!))