Date: 2008-04-17
From: hogpen rd

To: blue mt shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: scattered clouds

woke up around 6:30 in the morning still very tired after yesterday. my headlamp battery burned out last night and i forgot to bring a replacemnet, very bad luck. luckily no bears last night and our food was safe this morning, hikeon has been up for a little bit so i forgo breakfast and eat a granola bar and pack up my my tent to move out i am on the trail by 7:30. say goodbye to hikeon as he will be going a lot farther then i am going. i am feeling alright all things considered, i havent carried a full pack for almost a year which my pack weighs 38 pds with water in it. not a bad pack weight but i am debating buying a new one as my pack weighs about 4 pds and i haev seen a lot of ones that are waying 1 1/2. my shoulders are the things that seem to be hurting worse. it is a very chilly morning and theyare saying that there was snow 2 days ago. i do not have enough warm cloths so have to keep hiking to stay warm. luckily my sleeping bag is a +25 so i am pretty comfortable at night in it. Hike again most of the day by myself. it is a fairly easy day as far as elevation change lot of ups and downs between 200 and 500 ft. Met Bear another thru hiker about 2 miles from shelter. stoped and chatted with him for a few and he was going to same place as i. bear is from mississippi and has worked as white water guide in WV and CO. he moves on as i decide to rest for a while longer as there is still plenty of daylight left. Get to the shelter about 6:00 pm decide to try to sleep in the shelter as setting up the tent is ok but packing it in the morning is a pain. there is bear and one other hiker chandler in the shelter when i get there. we do the normal camp stuff lay claim in shleter start to cook dinner get water and take care of feet, i have started to get a few blisters but nothing bad yet.five other hikers come i for the night they have all been hiking to gether, they are chip from flfire cheif from PA, and then three that actually came together, sampson, jake and elwood. jake and elwood are named after the blues brothers as they are both fairly big boys. we have a god night sitting around the fire talking cooking dinner and getting to knw each other. all of us other then chandler decide that we are going to hike the next couple of days together, but that means that we are just going to be stopping at the same point. you almost always are hiking by yourself then meet up at night.My body is really hurting i am the first to lay down in the shelter as everyone else decided to tent for the night, i am not down more then 10 mins when a mouse ran under my head. i figured well it will stay away now that it knows that iam here. then another 10 mins and here comes another one. i dcide to tent but now it is dark so i ahve to set my tent up in the dark which is n ot to hard as there is only one pole to my tent. sleep good tonight as ihave not had much sleep the last 2 days wake up at 6 and watch the sunrise from the top of the mt. it makes me proud to think that iam here adn can view this and that i can actually appricate seeing the sunrise from here. i watch it for about an hour then head back to the tent to catch another hr of sleep.