Muscrat Creek Shelter (4/8/10)

Last night at the hostel, the only other guy staying there was a guy that went by the name of Mom. He was somewhere in his 70's and hiking pretty slow - I think he said he had started the trail sometime in early/min March. He was definitely taking his time.

We talked for a while about hiking/canoeing. He was from rural North Dakota and we bonding a little over our Midwest origins. He's been retired for the last six years he said, and ever since retiring, he's been something of a vagabond. He told me he spends most of the year traveling around the Midwest in a smaller camper. He's also been on some pretty impressive adventures as well. He told me that he had canoed down the Missouri/Mississippi river down to New Orleans. he had also canoed up the Red River and on up to Hudson Bay in Norther Canada. Some pretty interesting stories.

Thursday morning started out with some rain. By the time we'd gotten a ride to the trailhead, the rain had stopped - so everything was good. I made pretty good time up to Plum Orchard shelter and had some lunch with a group of about 10 or so hikers. The rain was starting to pickup a bit, so some hikers were debating whether to go on for the day. There's a saying out here: "No Rain, No Maine". If you don't hike in the rain, you'll never get anywhere. So, with that in mind, I thought I would head out - just ahead of everyone else (or so I thought).

The rain started to pick up as I went along, but it wasn't much of an issue b/c I had rain gear and a good pack cover. About halfway to the next shelter, though, it started to get pretty bad. I wanted to take a picture as I crossed the GA/NC state line, b/c there's a really mangled-looking tree there which supposedly is the most photographed tree on the AT. But the rain was getting pretty rough, and I didn't want to take my pack off and get my stuff wet - so I kept going. After crossing the state line, the trail just kept going up and up. As I climbed, the wind started getting stronger as well. There were a few minutes where I was legitimately scared that I might get hypothermia if I didn't get the the next shelter soon - what was I thinking leaving the last shelter?!

Anyway, I got to the next shelter after getting pretty wet (esp. my shoes/socks) and found that the shelter was more than full. All of the sleeping spaces were occupied and there was an area on the ground where a family had set a tarps down and were huddled up in their sleeping bags. I was pretty surreal getting to he shelter. Everyone was in their sleeping bags with their headlamps on. When I got there, all I was were everyone's eyes and their headlamps - packed like sardines.

The family moved over and made some space - but it was still pretty nasty. The tarp was pretty muddy, and pretty much all of the spots for hanging wet socks/clothes were occupied. It took me maybe 20 minutes to get all of my stuff spread out in an attempt to dry them out, and then jumping right in my sleeping bag - it was so cold!

A couple of the guys in the shelter built a fire after the rain had died off and everyone stood around the fire drying out their wet clothes. You could see steam rising from everyone's clothes. The fire was very nice, but it was still a pretty miserable night - I was shivering in my bag and didn't sleep much that night. If I had another night like that back to back, I think I might have quit right there - it was that bad.

FWIW, here's a pic someone else took of the GA/NC tree: http://blog.rfhp.net/?p=76