Tuesday, March 24 4:33 pm 12.5 mi
AT 81.0 Muskrat Creek Shelter → AT 93.5 Carter Gap Shelter
Weather: SO MUCH RAIN! Some thunder, a little lightning, but ceaseless cold rain
Trail Conditions: 1-2 inches of standing water for the whole 2nd half of the day; just muddy before
My Condition: Happy now that I’m warm and dry in my tent. Hands and feet in particular got cold from constant wet, and constant new (cold) water. Did a lot of Wim Hof breathing which DID warm them up, at least temporarily
Made it to the top of the tallest ridge of the day only to have the lightning/thunder start and the rain intensify. I walked fast under cover of rhododendrons and trees, and ran crouching low across openings. Swam (at least it felt like) the second half of the day. Tomorrow should be sunny – I hope! Random thoughts – I’ve been underwhelmed so far by the people on the AT, both the online community and the fellow hikers. Granted, it’s early, and granted, it’s a unique year with extreme social distancing due to pandemic, but most folks just aren’t that friendly. The first night, last night, and tonight, I walk in to shelter areas and say “hey” or “howdy” only to get cold stares and no reply. I may be an introvert, but I’m trying – and it seems like people just want to stick to the people they know. Disappointing – but things can turn around when you least expect! The Smokies announced a closure, so I’ll soon have a decision to make regarding how to proceed. All these obstacles, these barriers, these points of no return, these difficult thresholds remind me of the Hero’s Journey/Joseph Campbell model. In spite of the rain, the lack of a social group, and all of the challenges, I’m still having the time of my life and am not considering quitting.
Post Trail Analysis
I must’ve written this entry before I ate dinner for the night. During this early part of the trail, I carried a stove with me. I remember getting to camp, soaked to the bone, and stripping out of sopping wet clothes trying to keep the puddles out of the tent. I had a Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai meal for dinner, my absolute favorite dehydrated backpacking meal. I’d carry one meal like this during every resupply I could, in case I needed the emotional boost of having that to look forward to. On wet days like this one, thinking of that Pad Thai kept you moving forward during the slog. I’m not incorrect, but I am harsh in my analysis of other hikers. You cross paths with a lot of people on the trail, and like anywhere else in the world some of those people are amazing like Brent and Which Way, some fall in the middle and don’t leave you with a strong impression, and some are real jagoffs. It’s no fun to walk up to a shelter area with folks hunkered down out of the weather and offer up a greeting only to be treated to the cold shoulder from everybody present, but it’s important to keep in mind that they probably had a rough day getting there and might not be in the mood to interact with people. It’s a dangerous game, assuming intent. The reality is I had no idea what these people were going through, or what they were talking about, when I walked up. They might’ve just finished relating a heavy story. They might still be shivering as they try to dry off and warm up. Or they might just be jerks. All I knew is that I wanted to do better – if someone was opening up interactions with me or with my group, I would want to create a warm, welcoming first impression. This was one of my roughest nights on trail, though. More on that in the next entry.
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