Beginning Point: Cheese Factory Site
Ending Point: Deep Gap Shelter
Dailey Mileage: 9 miles
Total Mileage: 63.3 miles
Today was very foggy all day long; kind of cool, but kind of creepy, too. It's difficult to tell what time of day it is because morning looks like lunchtime, which looks like dinnertime... definitely need a watch in this environment.
As far as wildlife viewing goes, I haven't seen anything besides birds and spring flowers. This morning I saw a pair of indigo buntings through the drizzle and fog - beautiful birds. All the rain has really brought the greenery out; everything is verdant, fresh and new. Smells good.
Rain was intermittent all day long. I felt like Goldilocks from the nursery rhyme... too hot, too cold, too sweaty, never just right. I had my raincoat on/off/on/off (repeat ad nauseum). Despite the weather, it was a nice day for hiking, although I was pretty tired towards the end. The last couple of miles to the shelter were tough; had a steep 1000 ft climb, then a steep descent into the shelter. The worst part about it was the fog - you could only see about 50 feet in front of you so you couldn't see where the uphill ended and the downhill began.
We arrived at the shelter somewhat early in the evening and secured shelter space. Shelters always fill up early in poor weather. The Super Troopers were there; I think they are all retired military guys - such nice people! There were about 6 in total at Neel's Gap, but different paces are separating them. I hope to continue playing "tag" with them.
I was the only woman in the shelter last night. It's funny, I always thought that I wouldn't sleep well in the shelters with folks who snore (and aparently I am in that crowd -- uh-oh!), but it really doesn't bother me. Sometimes a rhythm develops without effort - it makes me giggle. I heard some nocturnal rodent chewing sounds last night, but my stuff fared okay.
One more funny thing and then I'm done with this entry. I mentioned Messy Garage in my last post... We left the cheese factory site in the rain and Messy hadn't left his tent yet. When we arrived at Deep Gap shelter, he already had his tent up and was taking a rest before dinner - it was as if he teletransported from there to here. He must have passed us when we stopped for lunch at Tray Mountain Shelter... he claimed to have only set up his tent 3 minutes before we stumbled into camp.
Posted by steph at May 6, 2004 04:25 PM