Finally, A Trail Name
So, it’s April 19, and I’m at the Hogback Ridge Shelter, which is at mile 317 and a half on the AT. I did 15 and a half miles today, so over the past three days, I've done 42 miles. My feet are quite tired. I’m already in my tent at 7:45, because it started to rain. Tonight will be the first opportunity I’ve had to find out whether or not my patch works — or my zillion patches work — and so far, so good, at least.
I woke up this morning at the Jerry Cabin Shelter, and the forecast was calling for rain, so I wanted to try to get out in front of it. Supposedly, it wasn’t going to start until around nine, but it turned out to be a good thing that I’d gotten up and was ready to go by 7:30, because at around 7:45, the skies just opened up, and it started pouring. Even though that was expected, it wasn’t exactly welcome.
The first little bit was uphill, and when I got to the top, it was an open grassy bald. It's really quite nice to emerge from the woods at the top of a mountain and walk across a nice grassy field, but on the way up, I had been hearing a lot of thunder. It still seemed pretty far in the distance, so I wasn't terribly concerned about it, but it was a little unsettling, considering I didn't really have any shelter. So I scurried the best that I could across the bald and got myself back into the cover of the woods. So, no damage done.
Then I had to navigate a bunch of really difficult boulders. The mountain I was crossing was called Big Butt. I'm not really sure what the story is behind that, if there is one. Once I got across Big Butt, there was a decent descent. And then at just under 7 miles, I got to the Flint Mountain shelter.
Boone and (other) Rob and I and another guy, who’s from England — Jerry, I think his name is? — all got there largely at the same time and decided to stop for a bit so we could have a snack, get out of the rain for a while, and put on some dry clothes. From that point, we had another descent of about three miles, at which point, we crossed the road and would then have a significant ascent.
About a mile after the road crossing is a river, so I stopped there to fill up my water bottles and have another snack. While I’m standing there, this guy comes out of nowhere wearing a open Hawaiian shirt and pink Crocs and just cruises right by me at about light speed. I said hi to him briefly, but unfortunately, I wasn't near my phone to get a picture. He seems like a guy who does some serious mileage.
Next, I started making my way up a very steep incline through this beautiful, lush green valley. And at one point, I heard a big commotion in the bushes. Three wild turkeys suddenly bolted across the trail in front of me. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to get my camera out, but that was the first interesting wildlife I've seen on the trail thus far.
At the top, I stopped to have yet another snack, and Coffee and Bodacious showed up right after me, so I hung out with them for a bit before making my way down the three miles to the Hogback Ridge shelter. There's some giant youth group staying here tonight. I guess it's a Friday, so it's not surprising that there'd be some weekend hikers out here, but they’re definitely making quite a bit of noise. Maybe that'll calm down eventually.
As I was putting up my tent, Coffee came over and was watching me for a bit. She actually has the same tent that I do, minus all the holes. After a minute or so, she said, “What the heck happened to your tent?”
I explained the whole bear cable fiasco, and she's like, “There’s got to be a trail name in there,” to which her husband Bodacious replied, “Your name should be Patches.” So I think that might be my trail name now. I’m actually partial to Patch, singular, partly in homage to this really great brewery in Gordonsville (Patch Brewing Co.), where my friend is the head brewer. So, cheers, Erik!
But we'll see what happens over the next few days. It's a good name — Patch — and it originated out of something that I did on the trail, so I feel pretty good about that. If it rains tonight like the forecast says, I'll get to see how well the tent holds up, and maybe the name will stick.
