Saturday, April 1, 2017

3 Dog Night, 4 Hood Day - March 31

Left Darlington Shelter this morning with a steady rain and 37 degrees leading the charge. The rain was our companion until 2 or 3 this afternoon. It was a great test for our rain gear as we can't remember hiking through a steady rain for that many hours.

Gear held up well. Of course there is no pretense of keeping legs and feet dry. There are all kinds of waterproof boots out there. But all of them have this big hole in the top where you stick your foot in. Awfully hard to waterproof that hole when water is running down your legs.

Marmot, you can have your "waterproof" gloves back. Best Wife would have been better off wearing sponges on her hands.

Pulled into the Cove Mtn Shelter for lunch at 2. The leading edge of the shelter floor was a good three feet off the ground. All the other shelters that high have had stairs or a couple boulders to use to get up in the 3 sided lean to. To make things more difficult the leading edge of the floor was covered with sheet metal. Never seen this before.

Turns out local porky pines have been holding frat parties in the shelter. Chewing up all the wood in sight. The sign on the front of the shelter explained the high step and sheet metal are to try to keep porky out of the shelter and in the woods.

The sign went on to say, "If you wake up with a porky in bed with you, let us know how he got in."

Since temps only got up to about 45, Best Wife and pappy 12 hiked all day with all the clothes on we have. Best Wife even had all four of her hoods on most of the day. It's a four hood day alright.

Since Saturday is our food resupply day we asked "Trail Angel Mary" in Duncannon, PA for a lift to a local motel/grocery store. 16 years ago as a homeless women and living in a tent at a Duncannon campground, she found satisfaction in helping AT hikers. A few months later when she was back on her feet she started opening up her apartment to thirsty hikers as well as shuttling them around.

The AT trail guide includes phone numbers for all the local trail support folks from GA to ME. The people that make up the society and culture up and down the trail are reliable, selfless and numerous.

No comments:

Post a Comment