Giant Soccer Ball

This morning (May 28), I woke up before 6 o'clock at the Bryant Ridge Shelter after getting very little sleep. I'm sort of oh-for-three with staying in shelters. The first time I did was in the Smokies, during some terrible weather. The second time I decided to sleep in a shelter, I was close to Mount Rogers and the Grayson Highlands — and that was also because of bad weather. And then, this was my third time, and I thought it had promise, but shelters just are difficult locations to get any rest. I mean, in my regular life, I'm actually a pretty good sleeper, but apparently, that’s not the case when I'm hiking the trail. Any time people move, it makes noise. They’ll shift around on their sleeping mats, which tend to be like squeaky balloons. And one guy — and I realize it’s very rich for me to be complaining about this — but one guy snored like I have never heard before in my life. And I mean, it was just all night. Nothing could stop him. Maybe S. can comment on that. [Wife note: What? No. I have no idea what that’s like at all...]

Anyway, at least I was dry, and I didn't have to put my tent away in the morning. I got up, ate breakfast, and was anticipating a huge climbing day today, like probably the largest climbing day in at least a few hundred miles. Probably since the Smokies. I was able to get hiking just slightly before 7 o'clock, which is a record for me. And immediately, the trail went straight up. In three miles, there was 2,000 feet of elevation gain, which is massive. It was just up and up... and up... and up.

And the frustrating part was that there really wasn't any payoff for the first nine miles of the trail, but at around nine miles, I reached the peak of Apple Mountain, and perched on the top of the mountain is a large FAA radar. I think it's a Doppler radar. It looks like a giant soccer ball. Tree Licker was just ahead of me, and he’d noticed a cooler sitting in a little stand of pine trees off the side of the trail, which turned out to be Trail Magic.

That was an absolutely delightful surprise! I quickly absorbed a full-sugar Coca-Cola and then one of those plastic-barrel-shaped containers with the colored liquid. I drank one that was purple in hopes that it was grape, but I think they're all the same flavor. At least they appear to be. Nonetheless, the calories and hydration were greatly appreciated. So thank you to whoever put those out there.

The weather was so nice, and it was a little bit breezy, so I decided to have a snack and just lay in the grass for a while next to the giant radar. Whoever maintains the area around the giant soccer ball does a really great job of keeping the lawn mowed, so it was a nice bonus to just kick back and relax in the sun for a little bit.

After that, the day was much easier. I reached a pretty well-known rock feature on the AT that’s called the Guillotine. There’s a rock kind of suspended between two large boulders, and it looks like it could just fall at any moment and take out whatever unlucky person happens to be under it.  

A little further on, the trail actually met up again with the Blue Ridge Parkway, and for whatever reason, I really like when that happens. I think I mentioned that in an earlier post. But it's such a nice looking road, and the idea that you're out in the woods but also still somewhat close to civilization is appealing, which might sound odd, I guess. Also, whenever the trail kind of traces the Blue Ridge Parkway, it tends to be fairly easy to walk, which is a nice plus. So I was able to put down some pretty quick miles.

And then there was one final incline. I think the total elevation gain for the day was 4,500 feet, which is a lot. Normally, about 2,000 feet in a day is sort of a good day. I was definitely tired by this point, and when I came to a tent site near a spring, I elected to just stay there. The next shelter wasn't for another couple miles or so. I’d covered close to 14 miles already, and I’d made arrangements to go to the Stanimals hostel in Glasgow, Virginia, the next day. So there was no real point in being heroic today and then having a really short hike tomorrow.

I checked the water source, which was fine, and found a good spot for my tent. And just as I was starting to put up my tent, several other hikers arrived who had the same idea as me and decided to stop for the night. But before we had a chance to talk to one another and get to know each other, the bugs realized that we were in the area and just descended on us like I've never seen before. And these were mainly those tiny little black flies that like to bore into your skin. Everyone was rushing as fast as they could to put their tents up and running off to get water. I actually have a bug net for my head and face that I bought thanks to S.'s encouragement, and I put that on, thank goodness. I also put on my jacket, but my knees were just under siege, because they were the only thing that was still exposed. As soon as I’d filtered all my water and my tent was up, I made a beeline for my tent and shut myself up in it.

Everyone else there did the same thing. And what was funny was that not long after we’d all retreated like that, it started raining. And we were all in our tents yelling, like, “It wasn't supposed to rain! It wasn't supposed to rain!” So I felt a little bit validated in my surprise that it was raining yet again.

I didn't cook any dinner, because I wasn't about to go back out into the open, and you know, having an open flame inside a tent is generally not the wisest thing in the world. So I just sort of scrounged through whatever was available in my food bag that didn’t need heating up.Now, as I'm recording this, I'm just sitting here scratching all my bug bites.

I want to add that after the couple of tough days I had recently — especially the day my friend Charlie and I did McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs, when I was feeling just terrible — I actually felt pretty good today. I did just under 14 miles, most of which was challenging climbs, and I’m feeling okay, which is somewhat of a confidence booster for me. It still scared the crap out of me to do it, and I can't say that I was singing happily the entire time, but I feel very encouraged that I was able to get through some big miles and feel all right and maintain my appetite. So chalk this one up as a good day. I hope I can repeat it in the days to come.