Appalachian Trail Day 32

03-31-01, Day 32

16.4 miles, AT – 355.1 3,900 feet

Johnnys – Cherry Gap Shelter

Foggy – 50° – Felt muggy

Today was TOUGH!!! My pack must weigh the most it ever has. Eight days of food. My feet were screaming at me all day because of the load. The hiking was rough too. Lots of rocks.

We passed three groups of Boy Scouts (?) and one other solo section hiker. At a bald in the fog as I though to myself, “Wow! I bet some animal is watching us right now in the fog”, just then two deer ran out of the fog in front of Agatha and I. Their tails were up and they were moving out! Either Agatha is good luck or spring is here. I’ve seen more animals with her then on the whole trip.

I ran into George and Laura at Johnnys in the morning. They were good and in high spirits. No sign of Mr. Pat. Photon, Raven, Broken Down Palace (?) and Ghostdog all went to a shelter 4 miles from Johnny’s.

I bought two food bags instead of my one. I was having trouble with the right days of food plus I thought two bags would pack better than one large bag.

Tonight I had some Cajun style rice and mixed in Cajun chicken Ramen. Then I heated my tortillas on Agathas pot lid with Pepper jack cheese and pepperoni. Yummy! I had three of these and then I did my best to finish what rice was left. I still have a Snickers to eat.

It’s very damp. The pages feel wet. Tomorrow we will climb Loon Knob and stay there. We will be camping at 6,255 feet. I just hope we don’t get rained on along the way.

Todays hike was painful. I was hurting. I felt like a slug on the last hill. I was hurting so bad. Agatha was right on my heels. We were both breathing like we had just ran a marathon. My feet burned, my knees hurt, my back burned, I was sweating like a pig and my eyes burned from the sweat.

The day had 3,400 feet of climbing from 1,700 to 5,100 feet. That doesn’t count all the other up/downs in between.

-Scatman 2011 I remember having the option of carrying the eight days of food or another stop in another town and only carrying 4 days. The option into town sounded like a pain in the ass so we went for the long push. As I said above it was tough. The thought always going through my mind was, “Every time you eat and every day that goes by, it will get easier!”

After this entry some pictures are missing so I have a gap of about a day. It’s too bad since they are great pictures of the April 1st snow storm we hiked through.

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Scatman

Get out there!