Day 3 Sunday November 21, 2021 6.56 miles
I was impressed with the people who came into the shelter after we went to bed. They didn't use a tent, just rolled out their pads and bags. They got up after us and left way before us. Heck, their dog didn't even bark when we heard a pack of wolves...coyotes...Chupacabras.
Last night I checked the weather and it appeared that it would start raining around 2 am and wouldn't stop until 2 pm. Well it did start around 2 am, around 6, it still wasn't really raining. But it seemed rain was dripping off the leaves. When we stepped out of our tents the view was...wait for it...obscured by fog or what I later learned was clouds. We were at a point so high that we were in clouds! That blew my mind! Remember I’m from the Gulf Coast, our mountains (bridges and overpasses) never reach the clouds. I was disappointed that we wouldn't get an amazing view I hoped for being at the peak.
We were about to head out when the three hikers offered to hike with us, they were after the same destination as us. Lauren, the younger guy, the third one, and I all hiked together. Angie and the older gentleman hiked together. It was slow going since the rocks were wet. We didn't want to accidentally slip and fall. We couldn't see too far in front of us because of the clouds. Eventually, we came upon a cemetery. The story is there was a family where everyone was sick except a little girl. They sent her out to get firewood or water. When she was out wolves went after her, she climbed into a tree and froze to death. The next day her frozen body was found, it's said that she haunts Rich Mountain.
We continued, and eventually came out to a road, shortly down that road we went into the camping area of Queen Wilhemina State Park. We ran into an older gentleman who stopped us to talk about backpacking. He said he recently did about 1,000 miles of the AT, his name is Freight Train because of his snoring. He asked if any of us have trail names yet, none of us did. He wished us well and we continued. We ran into him again later and he offered us Cliff Bars, I gladly accepted them! That was the best thing I ate on this trip! I told my group that I wanted to get lunch at the Lodge while we waited for another to join our party.
I'm sure we stunk up that Lodge! I was a soaking wet mess, but my feet should have been dry since I put grocery bags over my feet. My shoes were already wet, so the bags were worn over my socks, sticking out of my shoes.
We finally got a table for lunch, and we invited another backpacker to join us. He was attempting to thru hike the OT, however he had 40 miles and two days to finish it, so he decided to stop. He said he had to take a few zero days, I understand that all too well from backpacking this trail last year. After ordering lunch our friend, Texas, joined us. At this point our friend, the older of the three, said that my trail name is Uno! Oh my God I felt like a princess, I finally had a trail name and it's better than anything I would have come up with and it is so fitting!
After lunch we were talking about our plans, we still had around seven miles to get to the shelter. The third guy and the younger guy had already left, the older gentleman was sitting on the couch waiting to figure out what his plans were. Just as Texas mentioned that we couldn't do the seven miles before dark the older gentleman came over saying the same thing. He offered to shuttle us to the next trailhead so that we only had to do a little over a mile. Typically I would say no because I would miss part of the trail, but I knew there was no way I wanted to have anyone in my group hike at night when the terrain was so wet, rugged, and rocky. It was crazy driving to the trailhead because we were still in the clouds! We could barely see in front of us. Texas said when she was on her way she could only see about five feet ahead!
Once we were all at the trailhead, we started on our mile hike. The shelter was to the left up a fairly big hill, but it was all by itself and the view was nice. We had two hunting dogs come check us out, I wanted to play with them, but their job was to hunt.
We set up camp, Texas slept on the platform without a tent, Angie and I set our tents up on the platform and Lauren set up her tent on the ground. We laid our socks out to dry and then worked on hanging our bear bag. First the rock sack was thrown over a branch and got stuck. We pulled to get it back, but it didn’t move. We tried pulling on the rope, no good. We tried shaking the tree, useless. We used a trekking pole, no luck. We poked at it with a broom from the shelter, it wouldn’t budge. Lauren pulled on it and screamed at us “Duck!!!” I looked over and the rock sac was flying towards us! Luckily we all ducked and no one got hurt. The best part was we stayed warm because we were laughing so hard!
While dinner was cooking we played another round of Uno. After the sun set we headed to our tents and got ready for bed. This night was different than the previous night. I had wet clothes. The grocery bags helped keep my socks dry from the rain, but it also trapped in my sweat, my socks were soaking wet. I put them under my sleep pad thinking that my body heat would warm them up and dry them. Then I realized that was a horrible idea, it trapped the moisture. I had a better chance of them drying if I had them laying in the tent.
It was a chilly night. It was in the upper 30's but sleeping without another's body heat made it feel colder. I had my 30-degree bag, my sleep sac that adds up to 15 degrees, thermal underwear, a hat and gloves. I used all of it and I used my hoodie as a blanket to get a little more heat. I wasn't uncomfortably cold, what made me the coldest was when I'd roll off my pad. I tossed and turned all night long sliding off the pad time and time again! I did read that I should put seam sealer on the bottom side to keep it from moving but what about when I toss and turn? We were serenaded by the frogs, it was quite lovely. Bud… Weis… Errrrrrr…
I learned a hiker term, hikers midnight. Apparently hikers’ midnight is about 9 pm. We made it to 7 pm each night which seems appropriate, I never make it to real midnight either.
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