Day 10

Standing Bear Farm

Day 10

This entry will probably make me sound like an emo kid. It's funny how fast things change. Last night between 12:15 and 1:00am, 2 more hikers moved in. Noisily. Bangingly. Disrespectfully. In the morning it was apparent that they had no idea what they were doing. Shelters by the road are no place to be. The day started off OK. Threatening skies lead us on: no rain in the morning. Uneventful hike down to the Davenport Gap but damn, my right knee HURTS! We spent an hour at the standing bear farm, a local hiker hostel. We ate candy bars + bought peanut butter, honey, saltines, hot chocolate and a post card for Mom. Then the fun started. The climb from the Davenport gap was more than we bargained for. My right leg and I were mortal enemies by the end. I wanted it to fall off, it wanted me to sit the F down already. Intermittent downpour ended our dreams of peanut butter lunch, although the top of the climb included a bald with great views of storms + a VOR. Dad's pack won't hang straight off his shoulders. The rain just dampens everything, including spirits. We arrive at the shelter to find pastor Dave and son Mikah, who has discovered a 5ft snake in the shelter. Soon the snake is removed to the point of no return. Food and hot chocolate make us feel a little better. Dad hits the sack at 7:02pm. I hope my right leg heals for the morning. Tomorrow should be a little easier. Rain forecast for the next 3 days. Gonna do my best to stay dry, happy and excited.

*I bet you were wondering when I would stop spouting rainbows and unicorns. I can still remember the pain from this 4 miles of straight steep downhill hiking. It's not intuitive that hiking downhill hurts worse than up, but I can vouch for this. The two hikers who moved in were obviously inexperienced and even asked Dad if the rainwater was safe to drink out of puddles in the ground. Dad had them boil it first as they had no filter. They were not moving into the shelter in a disturbing fashion on purpose, they just had no idea what they were supposed to be doing. VOR stands for VHF omnidirectional range, it is an aviation navigation beacon and the flying geek inside of me was psyched to discover one in the middle of the woods. We were so wet this day. It rained so hard we could have been in a pool when we stood on that hill and ate beef jerky and felt drier. Not everything you do on the trail is fun, but all of what you do is a great experience.



I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!