Make it count: Day #69

Wednesday, May 20 - Day #69 - AT Hike

Miles Hiked Today - 15.2
Total Miles Hiked on AT - 906.4/2,193 (41.33%)

Loft Mountain Campground (891.2) to Hightop Hut (906.4) - tent at Hightop Hut

Total ascent - 3,417’
Total descent - 3,448’

Total States Completed - 3/14

**Rain Day - overcast all day. Rain started around 4pm and rained most of the night.

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Coming to you live from my tent at the Hightop Hut (they call shelters - “Huts” - in the Shenandoahs). It’s been raining steadily since about 4pm. Luckily - I got into camp around 3pm and was able to get my tent all setup before the rain started.

Great news - 3 others are here at the shelter tonight. Owl Cat and her dog PR, Wiki, and Learning Curve. I’ve met Owl Cat and Wiki - Learning Curve is new to the game. He got off trail for 7 weeks for Covid-19 - he’s back to continue his thru-hike. He skipped about 500 miles and is now doing a flip-flop. He’ll hike to Katahdin and then come back and finish the rest. Both Owl Cat and Wiki are at the same mile marker as me —— AND THAT WOULD BE OVER 900 MILES!!!

I finally got to take a picture of the Mile Marker on trail - and feel good about it (see pics). I’m closely approaching a really big number very soon!

The Shenandoahs are turning out to be pretty challenging - because the tenting and Hut locations are so infrequent. Today - was either 15.2 or 26.5. Tomorrow is either 12.9 or 20.5. Usually this isn’t a big deal because stealth sites are readily available and you can pick a spot at a convenient mile marker. However, this park seems to have very few (if any) stealth spots. I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings - I have to do one 20-miler to get me out of the park by Sunday evening. I’m either doing it tomorrow or Friday. Main problem - it’s supposed to rain like nobody’s business the next couple days. Tomorrow- forecast is 1/2-3/4 inches of rain in the afternoon - and 1-2 inches of rain at night. (You rarely see that much rain forcast).

It was a major bonus to see people again today. There’s just that sense of comfort. Learning Curve passed me about 10am and we hiked together for a mile to the next Shelter and took a break. He was way faster than me and went on ahead - so I was alone the rest of the hiking day. All good though - all 4 of us had dinner and started a fire this evening.

I was thinking of this as I hiked today — almost every single person I’ve met on the trail has some sort of connection with the AT. Most people have hiked at least a portion of it - or live by it - or have family that live by it. I’m sort of an outsider. I really don’t have any connection with the AT at all. I think I’ve been on it in New Hampshire when I climbed Mt Washington - but I didn’t know it at the time. It’s really interesting talking with people because they have unbelievable insight on upcoming trail sections. Owl Cat lives in Maine and has done the whole AT trail there. Learning Curve lives in Greensboro, NC and has hiked Virginia and up into Pennsylvania on the AT. Wiki - he’s from Wisconsin - not sure his connection — but he does smoke a lot of weed.

It’s early - 8:07pm - and I’m just finishing up the blog. When you get into camp at 3pm - you can get a lot done by an early hour. I even was able to ice my feet in the stream after the hike (I needed that - my heels were hurting pretty bad after the hike today)

Here’s to less than 3 inches of rain tomorrow (like - significantly less). If it’s really treacherous out there - I’m going to cut my losses and do the 12.9 miles - we’ll see.

Goodnight from the rain-soaked Shenny’s!