Appalachian Trail Day 30 – Hogback Shelter – No Business Knob Shelter

Appalachian Trail Day 30

03-29-01, Day 30, 6:55 AM ® 3:30 PM

20.6 miles, AT  –  334.4

Day 7 of Rain

Hog Back Ridge – No Business Knob Shelter

Rain, cold, wind.  No views.

My first 20 miler!!!  Today was good except all the rain.  Agatha and I pumped out 10.3 miles in 4 hours.  It was easier than yesterday.

We saw a rabbit at Sams Gap.  A little cottontail.  We also saw some grouse.

Agatha is a strong hiker.  She only had done canoe camping before now.  Her average is 16 miles a day.  No rest days for her.  Mines like 11.8 not counting my days off.

Tomorrow is Erwin and more PIZZA.  I’ll be staying at Uncle Johnnys.  He has a hot tub too.

My hands are so dry and cracked.  My skin around the tips of my fingers is all rough.  It catches on my clothes.  My pinky on my right hand has a crack right at the first joint.  It’s about an 1/8-inch deep.  When sweat gets in it, it stings bad.  My toes have black dirt between them.  My face is all rough with salt.  Fingernails are black with dirt and dry and cracking.  My ears are always dirty.  My hair is oily and dirty. The chafe is almost healed up.  Tomorrow I get my new pants.

No Business Knob Shelter

Everything is wet now and will be in the morning.  Theres nothing like putting on cold, wet clothes in the AM!

I enjoy it out here but it makes you appreciate the comforts of home.

Scatman 2011- This was a miserable day.  I recall stopping for lunch and my hands were so cold I could barely rip open a Snickers bar.  To make matters worse the shelter we spent the night at was constructed out of cinder blocks and didn’t feel very inviting after such a terrible day in the cold rain.

It appears I forgot to mention in my journal about the mouse that lived in the shelter.  I was trying to sleep when something ran over my head.  This freaked me out at first until I realized it was a mouse.  After that I was more worried about my food than myself.  He would run over my head a few more times throughout the night but finally left me alone.

Days if not months later while on the trail I learn another hiker had the same experience.  He noticed the mice were coming out of a hole in the wall.  he put peanut butter on his hand, which he put up to the hole and then preceded to  blow down the hole.  Soon a mouse would come out, climb onto his hand to eat the peanut butter and he’d close his hand and throw the mouse into the woods.  The story goes he caught 8 mice this way.  Turn or not it’s funny stuff.

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Scatman

Get out there!