July 11
We were awakened early today by the German couple at around four in the morning. I quickly fell back asleep, but kept waking up. I finally made an attempt to stay awake around eight. That's when everyone else was up. We chatted for awhile and they headed out. I had high hopes to start hiking by eight, but it was cloudy and misty out, which gave me no desire to leap into nature. After lounging around until almost eleven, I got into gear. I headed out to the trail by noon.
Today's agenda included a larger mountain, which was supposed to have amazing views, but I never got to see them. There were thick clouds all around. I couldn't see more than fifty feet in front of me. The majority of the mountain was above the treeline, which made it a bit difficult to follow the trail. There were rock piles to follow, but most of them were subtle. I almost lost the trail a few times, but I stayed on task.
I made it to the next shelter a little before four. We were hoping to go more than 3.5 miles and hit the next shelter ten miles away, but the clouds seemed scary. I decided being dry was more awesome than being wet, so I wrote a note telling Matt my plans.
Whiskers and crew were already at the shelter and were working on a fire. We were soon joined by Seth, a fellow Southbounder we hadn't met yet. Matt made an appearance about an hour after I arrived. We cooked dinner. It then started to rain. It didn't stop for the rest of the night, which wasn't cool because I had to use the ladies room. I finally was able to at two in the morning. It was not a pleasant experience trying to find the privy in the wet darkness. After getting that out of the way, I quickly slumbered.
Today's agenda included a larger mountain, which was supposed to have amazing views, but I never got to see them. There were thick clouds all around. I couldn't see more than fifty feet in front of me. The majority of the mountain was above the treeline, which made it a bit difficult to follow the trail. There were rock piles to follow, but most of them were subtle. I almost lost the trail a few times, but I stayed on task.
I made it to the next shelter a little before four. We were hoping to go more than 3.5 miles and hit the next shelter ten miles away, but the clouds seemed scary. I decided being dry was more awesome than being wet, so I wrote a note telling Matt my plans.
Whiskers and crew were already at the shelter and were working on a fire. We were soon joined by Seth, a fellow Southbounder we hadn't met yet. Matt made an appearance about an hour after I arrived. We cooked dinner. It then started to rain. It didn't stop for the rest of the night, which wasn't cool because I had to use the ladies room. I finally was able to at two in the morning. It was not a pleasant experience trying to find the privy in the wet darkness. After getting that out of the way, I quickly slumbered.
