Start: Peter’s Mountain Shelter (AT mi 1160.6). Stop: Yellow Springs Campsite (AT mi 1174). Today’s miles: 13.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 149 miles
I woke up today around 5:30am-that seems to be when the sunlight starts to creep in through the shelter.. I definitely refused to get up though. I rolled the other way and waited, knowing I’d wait to hear the others start moving before I got up. They seem to be natural early risers.. so the fear of waking up at 10am was subdued. I finally got moving about an hour later. Packed up and ate breakfast, then hit the trail just before 8am.
Today was a hot one, mid 80s, and man did I sweat enough to prove it! There were some rocky areas, but overall the terrain wasn’t too difficult. Even typing that out sounds funny-because I was still hiking at a snails pace, but i enjoyed it, even the uphills.
I was able to zone out a bit by listening to an audiobook as I hiked. Some might say that it takes away from the experience to do that.. but I don’t think so. I was able to take in the scenery, hear the birds chirping from my left ear, and be apart of a murder mystery in my right ear. And with the headphones that actually plug in to my phone, there’s no power wasted to charge them, and I can easily pause the audiobook with the little button on the earpiece string, which I do every time I notice anyone coming or passing.. so I can exchange pleasantries and not be a jackass that doesn’t speak when spoken to. So far, it works for me!
The miles went by quickly in the beginning. Just after 11 I caught up to Cholula and Curmy at a beauty of a stream. They were eating a snack there so I decided to join, and I soaked (very short dips at a time because it was super cold) my sore feet in the water while I ate 🙂 it was phenomenal!
The rest of the hike seemed to drraaaaaaaag on. And on. And on. My feet started to get sore and I took some more ibuprofen but they just felt achy the rest of the day regardless of the medicine. I did share the trail with the cutest little animal. I’m not sure if he’s a ground hog, a very fat marmot, or a beaver without a beaver tail.. but he was cute all the same. I came up on him and he ran up trail.. and we did this little dance for almost 10 minutes. He’d run up trail, I’d get there, he’d see me, run up trail.. hahaha.. eventually i started recording him, while trying not to scare him and give him space (I’ll post the video to Facebook, and on the video I’m zoomed in a lot, so don’t think I’m that close).. he finally darted off trail for me to pass, but stood on a log and just stared at me, looking annoyed that I made him go into the brush!
At mile 10ish I passed the last water source before our planned campsite three miles ahead. I filtered my small water bottle immediately and drank a zip fizz (lots of electrolytes and some caffeine) to help me get through the next 3 miles, and then filled up my 2 2L CNOC bags to filter my water at camp.. with that 4L I have enough to drink at camp, cook dinner, cook breakfast (oatmeal and coffee at least) and then have at least 2L to hike out with tomorrow.
While I was sitting a moment, contemplating life knowing my pack now weighs 8 pounds more because of the water, Cholula and Curmy caught up to me and got water, too.. but they told me they had just seen a HUGE rattlesnake! Curmudgeon almost walked right into it with his hiking poles and ended up jumping only when he heard it hiss at him! They showed me a picture and holy Jesus that thing was enormous! God knew I didn’t need to see that thing today!
We we made it to the campsite area we were aiming for, we picked out spots for our tents and set them up.. not long afterwards, Towely came around and he saw the snake too! And got video! So very creepy. I prefer my marbeavhog over their animal siting ANY day!
After we ate dinner and were all cleaning up a bit, Hot Sauce and Farout came walking up. They are flip floppers as well, and know Towely (not sure if I mentioned them yesterday, but that’s when I met them, last night they stayed in their tent near the shelter). Once we all got to talking, I learned that they were the couple Kevin and I saw at the post office in Harper’s Ferry that looked upset sitting outside my very first day. Come to find out, that’s the day they started, too and their package arrived but the post office sent it back to their house, so they were stuck trying to figure out how to start the trail without the things they mailed to themselves. Small world this little hiking community is.
We searched what felt like the entire forest and eventually found a branch to hang our food bags from. This is the campsite that had a bear come through a couple nights ago (thanks to the app we all use out here, Guthook, we were able to know this ahead of time and prepare ourselves accordingly). I think all 6 of us are praying no bear decides to come through tonight, i definitely don’t want one sniffing around my tent!
Here’s to sweet, uninterrupted, no bear having dreams. Goodnight, y’all!