Guess what everyone?!? I’ve broken with my tent only policy and am camping in a shelter tonight!
M’mot, Zeeba and I left camp this morning at about 8am. We decided to stop at Mollies Ridge Shelter to have a hot brunch. To facilitate getting out of camp quickly, I even delayed my coffee until brunch! Unheard of!
Oh, it rained cats and dogs last night. I stayed dry, but the underside of my sleeping pad was soaked. I’m not sure if I have a leak or what. Putting away the soaked tent was a nasty chore. It’s one that will be repeated again and again!
During the morning hike, it had temporarily stopped raining. But about an hour into it, the bottom dropped. This is the hardest rain I’ve hiked in yet. I’d taken my rain jacket off earlier because I was sweating in it. Now, without it, I was getting absolutely soaked!
We made it to the shelter at about noon and had a meal. I saw Whistler whom I hadn’t seen since Dicks Creek Gap ages ago. So cool to reconnect with people. He had partnered up with others and they were hanging out in the shelter taking a zero. We chatted with them while having our meal.
While we were there, others came through for lunch too. It was wild, when people came in out of the rain, you could literally see the water evaporating from their shirts!
M’mot and Zeeba finally left around 1pm. Me, I didn’t leave until about 2pm. We had an additional 5 miles to Spence Field Shelter, the destination for the day. During this leg of the hike, the rain stopped! The sun began making sporadic appearances which was pretty.
I arrived at Russell Field Shelter at about 330pm to find M’mot and Zeeba already here. M’mot said they were considering staying. My instinct was to carry on as planned, but I decided to stay put. I still have plenty of options to make Newfound Gap on Friday afternoon. Plus I’m really enjoying hiking with M’mot and Zeeba.
Just today, we discovered a mutual love for the film Aliens. We were trading well known quotes and laughing at them.
Because the nights weather was supposed to be crummy, I decided to “give it a try” in the shelter. It’s been fun! When the subject of shelter mice came up, we all make jokes about disgusting sounding meals that would make use of shelter mice. “Shelter Mouse Alfredo with Noodles” was one example.
I even had a great idea of how to deal with the mice. We need “shelter cats.” If I ever thru hike again, I am bringing cats with me. Each shelter will receive one. It’s job will be to maintain a mouse free shelter. It’s a great plan.
We’ll it’s now past hiker midnight and there are many snoring folks in here. I should’ve brought my ear plugs. But they’re in my pack and my pack is too far away. If I were in my tent, I could easily reach them. Oh well!
Wandering on…
Mojo