April 17 - 18 / 397.2 miles

"Rain rain on my face"...That is what I woke up to yesterday. We were sleeping upstairs in the shelter when it started raining some time in the early morning hours. I didn't know what it was at first cause it was more of a mist being blown in by the wind. Once the rain got heavier, I had to move locations to keep from getting too wet. A down sleeping bag isn't the best thing. By the time we got up and moving, the heavier rain quit and turned into a cold haze.

The morning started off with a climb over Little Hump and Hump Mtns. I felt like I was in Scotland with the wind and haze, and I have never even been there. The wind got so strong at some points that I thought I was going to get blown over. I wish the weather would have been clear so we could have seen good views from the Humps.

Even with the weather being bad, we hiked the first 9 miles in 3 hours to US 19E to Roan Mountain, TN. At the road crossing we met Cedar Tree who supposedly created the Packa. It is a rain jacket that goes over the hiker and your pack. I also got some trail magic which consisted of a Sprite. It was actually from a friend of Door Mouse and Dirt Stew.

As Gilly and I waited for a hitch, a car drove by honking. That is when we noticed Dark Star and Skywalker were in the back. What the heck? Why didn't the stop? We ended up getting a hitch from a 2004 thru hiker who now works at App. State. He was in the area for a work picnic. He took us to a convenient store to resupply. DS and Sky were already there. The store was terrible and had a very limited selection.

After the resupply, the four of us went and got lunch. For me, it was a fried bologna sandwich and fries covered in cheese and bbq. It was pretty good. We headed back, via a hitch from John and Nelda Valentine, to the trail and found Speed Stick (formally Super Mike) at the trail head. He joined up with us, and we hiked on. We had great views of a valley and took some pics of a from on a blade of grass.

Later in the day we arrived at Jones Falls. DS and Skywalker decided to climb to the top. Speed Stick and I had hiked on so I didn't get to see it. I was able to have a great conversation with SS. The two of us met Rick, Renee, and Bev. They were just out for the weekend. Rick gave us an orange which the two of us split at dinner and some peanuts. He was a pretty funny guy, and he kept calling me Bowtox and telling me the trail keeps me young.

For the night we stopped at Mountaineer Shelter. The shelter was a fairly new shelter which was built by Bob Peoples and the Hardcore volunteers. Every year there is trail days in Demascus. It is a gather of hikers with talent shows, stuff to buy from companies, a parade, etc. Bob takes a group of 100 volunteers for the two days following to perform trail maintenance. They are able to build shelters or reroute the trail in a matter of hours. Bob is a great guy and all about the trail. The shelter was really cool and actually three stories. Word has it that the third story started out and the leftover wood in the rafters. As people started sleeping on the wood, Bob went back and nailed down the wood to make it permanent. All of us, less DM and SB, camped in out tents. The other two camped a little south on the trail. They ended up catching up to us tonight.