Change of Plans
Today is May 17th, and I'm at mile 675.5, I believe, on the Appalachian Trail at Laurel Fork Shelter. And I’m going to give kind of a summary of the 14th through today. I've had an unconventional couple of days, so I’m going to try to just wrap them up into a single post that covers them all. Here goes.
On the morning of the 14th, I woke up at the Rice Fields Shelter, and it's on a nice grassy bald on top of a ridge, and the views were beautiful. But shortly past sunset the night before, it had started to rain. Of course. And it continued all through the night and the next morning. Everything was absolutely drenched. When I got up, I put away my wet tent and got going by around 7:30.
And the 14th has to rank as one of the worst days of my first two months on the Appalachian Trail. It was raining. It was windy. The trail was not very pleasant. Very rocky. Not well maintained. Just tons of pointless ups and downs, and I needed to do 16.5 miles.
And the kicker of the day was, I was sopping wet, sweating my face off, and the final mile of the day was incredibly steep — like, straight up. So, I got to the Bailey Gap Shelter in the evening, and the rain had paused slightly, but it was still sort of misting a little bit. Fortunately, I was able to set up my tent and dive into it just before it started raining again. I ate dinner in the tent, which is technically sort of a no-no, given bears, but I was prepared to deal with the consequences of that if I had to, after such a crappy day. And that was the end of it. The 14th is not necessarily a day I care to remember very well.
CLICK HERE TO SEE A PIC OF ROB’S FEET AFTER HIKING IN THE RAIN FOR A DAY (Stephanie, look away.)
The 15th, however, was comparitively pretty good, because I only had about 11 miles to hike, and I was going to be home later that day. So I had a lot to look forward to, a lot of motivation. When I woke up in the morning, it was quiet. I didn't hear any rain on the tent, and I was quite excited about that. But then, within just a few minutes, it started to just downpour. So I decided to try to wait it out, and when it stopped raining a little bit, I got up and shoved everything into my backpack. Since I was going home later that day, it didn't really matter if everything was soaking wet.
The first four miles of the day were a lot like the previous 16 — rocky, wet, not very well maintained. Just not a great section of the trail. But eventually, the terrain evened out, and it wasn’t so bad. I had some wiggle room in my schedule, so I just took my time and eventually got to where my dad and I had arranged for him to pick me up.
When I’d asked my dad if he’d be willing to come get me, he was incredibly generous to say yes. I didn't really have a great sense of how far the trailhead was from the highway, and it turned out to be like an hour away, on a small road. So I felt kind of bad for having asked my dad to do that. But he happily did, and I made sure to do the driving on the way back. It was really nice to hang out and spend a couple hours in the car with him, and to be behind the wheel again and with familiar people.
We got to my house at about 4:30, and it all felt very surreal. S. met me outside, and it was just a wonderful feeling. I hadn't been home for close to two months. It was really great, and I immediately knew it was going to be difficult to get me back on the trail, but I also knew I was going to go back. S. would not have let me stay at home — not because she wants me out of the house, but because she's my biggest cheerleader, and she knows that that would be a bad decision for me.
The 16th was pretty busy, even though technically, it was a zero day, and I was at home. Thankfully, the weather was lovely. So I took a little bit of time to put everything outside to dry. S. washed everything of mine twice, because it was so smelly and then hung everything out in the sun so the UV rays could freshen them up a little more. S. still had to work a bit, so I went up to visit my dad for a few minutes and dropped off a suitcase and a carry-on for him, because he's going to British Columbia in a couple weeks.
In the afternoon, S. and I went to Public Lands so I could pick up a few things. I needed to get some new gear, some new shorts, another fuel canister. I actually broke the tip off my hiking pole on the 15th, thanks to all the rocks, so I needed to get some replacement parts for that, too. And then we hit Wegman’s next door for some resupply. You know, just generally running errands and getting stuff done.
S. had ordered some new hiking shoes for me from Amazon, so I was excited to switch those out. They’re the Merrell Men's Moab 3 Mid Waterproof Hiking Boot, which I would have bought in Damascus, but the outfitter hadn’t had my size. I got my first blister this past week, and I think it’s because my boots were technically worn out.
In the afternoon, we needed to make a stop that was a lot more fun. Before I set out on my hike, S. and I got to brew with Decipher (a Belgian dark strong), and we had the chance to stop by and taste how it was coming along. It’s turned out really well, and when I’m back home again in a few weeks, on June 4th, that beer will get released, and I'm super excited about it.
Next, we went to a place in town called Aquafloat, which has these big pod-like things filled with warm water and a thousand pounds of Epsom salts. S. thought that would be good for helping my muscles recover and such. It was great. Floating around in a huge bath of Epsom salts for an hour was very helpful. For dinner, we ordered a ton of food from our favorite Indian restaurant in town and then sat on the couch, relaxed, and watched some reruns of shows we like. All in all, it was a really nice zero day and so wonderful to be home for about 36 hours.
Around 7:30 a.m. on the 17th, my friend Charlie and his wife Laurel picked me up to head back to the trail. I think I mentioned in a previous post that Charlie was going to be hiking with me for a week or so. That was actually one of the reasons I was able to go home for a quick visit. I was far enough along that I could take a zero day, and at first, I’d just planned to get a hotel room and hang out there. But I felt like I was close enough to home that it was realistic to come home and spend my zero day there, which is when I had the idea of asking my dad about a ride. I’m so glad it worked out. And since Charlie was going to be driving to the trail, anyway, I could just go back with him.
We got to the trail at about 11 o'clock, and Charlie had been training for this hike, so he was ready to go. We hiked about six miles, and he did great. It actually felt pretty good to get back on the trail after a really nice rest. The whole time, though, we were sort of racing the weather, because yet again, the rain was upon us. Charlie and I got into camp sort of mid-afternoon-ish and set up our tents, and after we’d eaten dinner and gotten everything put away, the skies were looking pretty heavy. By 6 o'clock, we were in our tents, and it was raining.
Tomorrow, we're supposed to get a little more rain. But a potential benefit of having all this rain now is that the weather should clear up in a few days, so when Charlie and I get to Dragon's Tooth and McAfee Knob, both those days — I think — will be clear. But you never know what's going to happen with the weather.
So there you go. A crappy day on the trail, followed by an okay day of hiking, then a fantastic zero day at home, and now back on the trail with a friend. Here’s hoping Charlie and I have a great week in the mountains.
