Hiking Matt

Woke up this morning, with the light pitter-patter of rain striking my tarp. Talk about being rested, warm and very happy.  After getting to bed late last night chatting with Phoenix Rising & Canada Wet, I wondered what time it was, I felt refreshed but the light outside was still a bit dim. Hit the indigo light on my watch, 2:32am!  What??  Four and a half hours of sleep and I’m raring to go.  I quickly disposed of any plans to get back up,this was just silly… 2am, pfft.

Continued to wake up periodically thereafter, not sure why.  When 8:30 came by, and most of the rain had stopped, I thought I ought get moving.

Phoenix Rising came over to say “hi” in person, not in that weird nighttime silhouette mode.  She said she was off to Hawk Mountain Shelter, 5 miles away.  Said I would probably see her there.  Packed up the rest of my gear and went to go make tea.  Canada Wet was still at the shelter, doing some journaling.  Nice chap, he’s hiking the IAT (International Appalachian Trail) for charity.  While he journaled and I finished making my Chai, two guys hiked in for a quick stop, Matt and Steve.  They had stayed on Springer and were headed for Hawk Mountain Shelter.

What great timing I had getting up a bit later than one probably should, the hiking day was great.  Granted, it wasn’t 69 degrees with blue skies and a light breeze but I enjoyed it very much.  There was a slight “ut-oh” moment about 2 miles after leaving Stover Creek Shelter.  The trail suddenly had woodsy debris scattered about, obscuring passage and behind it were downed trees, but I could still see the notorious 6 x 2 inch white blaze painted on trees down the this path but to the right was a nice wooden bridge.  Unfortunately there were no markings on trees that a turn in the path was ahead nor a wooden sign stating such a trail diversion, so of course I went over the bridge and followed that path.  About 50 yards down a tree which once had something painted on it, was definitely scrapped off..what’s that supposed to mean?  I kept going anyway..I thought that I had to be going the right way, had to.  After some time without seeing a single white blaze, the path took a downwardly direction. Still, no white paint to be found anywhere.  The path keeps going down, and by this time, you say to yourself that you definitely do not want to go back up, but that you know you’ve gotta be on the right trail, have to.  As you keep decending, you start thinking about what threshold must be met, what criteria is going to make you stop and reconsider this decision.  You figure, somethings gotta be around the corner..but there isn’t.  Then, some weird form of acceptance comes over, that the decision you made was wrong by saying “well, this trail must go somewhere, I’ll catch up to the AT up here.”  Or after you realize how utterly silly that is, you just think to yourself, “I am really going to hate walking back up all that”  As you say that, your feet continue taking you further and further down the mountain.  Just as you start to formulate a plan, voila..right there in front of you is a very clear, very white and spanking new white blaze.  You’d been right, all along.

That happened today, right before entering Three Forks.  I would later find out, I wasn’t the only one that felt like that.

Entered into Three Forks and it appears to be a nice but popular place to camp, large area for tenting and even better, awesome trees for hanging.

Ran into Reddog, who was hiking south, he had stayed (hanger) overnight at Long Creek Falls and recommended that I check it out.

The weather had started to change to a very light drizzle.  The falls were nice with lots of flow due to the amount of rain this area has gotten the past few weeks.  Chatted with a guy who was there with his two kids, very nice..he even offered to boil me some water as he had a ton of fuel.  Wish that offer still stood two hours later.  He also mentioned that they were calling for severe thunderstorms tonight, lovely.

Upon just leaving the falls trail, a group of four guy looked to be passing by until I recognized one from the MARTA Train.  Told him and the others that the path was short and worth checking out.  As I was walking out of there, it occurred to me that there were going to be a lot of people trying to make Hawk.  I best keep moving.  Eventually met and passed a hiker named Groove.  He moved well on the downs, but lagged considerably on the ups, primarily due to a 52 pound pack.  A short while after over taking him, I noticed my right foot starting to bother me.  My heal was aching a bit too much and since I wasn’t completely certain, although I knew it was close, where the shelter was, I stopped and adjusted my shoe.  Before I did anything, it dawned on me that the only reason why my foot was having any problems was due to the addition of Superfeet inserts earlier yesterday morning.  DUH!  While breaking in/testing my New Balance shoes, I never used the inserts and now, my ankle sits higher up in the shoes and therefore rubbing my heal against the top part of the heal cup.  Anywho, I quickly changed out the “designer” insert for the OEM/original one, which felt 100% better immediately when I started off again.  Unfortunately, all the guys who went to the falls were now overtaking me, and doing so  in a hurried pace.  I had only been about 100 yards away from Hawk Shelter!  grr!  As luck would have it, there was some space..the last remaining sleeping slots were quickly acquired by a few other hikers right behind me.

So, what to do, it’s 2pm, raining and a full shelter.  I asked Phoenix if she had a deck of cards, she started laughing.  Last night in one of our discussions, we said how funny it is to bring items that you’d probably never use, cards being one of them.

Phoenix and I chatted for awhile, probably an hour or so before others starting chiming in and/or expressing an opinion or story or something.  Imagine how odd it would be to sit in a shelter full of people, practically packed in, and no one talking, except two silly people who’d just met hours ago.  That’s what it was like.

Finally people started making food and getting situated inside.  More and more chatter started about this and that, the weather, where people were from, the falls, who threw what off the approach trail.

The weirdest thing about sitting in the shelter for hours was watching the clouds come roaring by.. just sailing past the entrance to the shelter.  I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anything like it.  Very interesting.

After making my Mac and Cheese and taking a picture of Phoenix’s arm from what I call a ‘knife fight’ but she calls ‘pre-cancerous cells.’

Chatted a bit longer and then headed off to bed to some very needed and well-deserved rest.  Let’s see where we make it to tomorrow.

Matt

mattbob