laurel creek shelter to pickle branch shelter

oh lucky day! the weather called for rain and thunderstorms starting at 1, and a 90% chance of getting wet. other than a couple sprinkles and some distant thunder it never manifest.

i was the first out of my bag this morning. it’s usually bugs, but we planned on 22 miles and the weather called for rain, so i wanted a head start. i was on trail only a half hour early, taking off while the rest of the crew finished breakfast.

i decided to pick up my pace a bit. i figured if i motored in the morning, it would be less hours hiking in the rain. the trail passed by some pastures where i could see the silhouettes of cows in the morning mist.

then the trail crossed the pastures for a bit, though i didn’t see any more cows. there is something about walking in a pasture that i find really wonderful. i found that i had some service, so i gave magz a call.

from there the trail crossed a road and climbed up onto a ridge, where i stayed all morning. the rocks were tough to traverse as they were pretty slick and at a steep angle. i was glad that it hadn’t yet started raining. at one point i had three consecutive steps slip, almost sending me down. “holy fuck!” i exclaimed, and then looked up to see an older woman hiker only steps from me. i warned her about the rocks, and explained that they were the cause of the cursing. she was thankful.

a little before noon, the trail started down the mountain, and about .5 miles before the shelter i planned to have lunch, it suddenly got very dark and windy. sporadic raindrops started, so i picked up my pace, hoping to get to the shelter before it started. i passed a hiker with his dog who was also on the move.

i arrived at the shelter without getting wet. a few minutes later the hiker with the dog showed up. the dog’s name was brownie, and he was a cute small pit bull. he was tired, but was really excited to greet me. i ate lunch, while brownie watched intently before succumbing to sleep. he sat sphinx style with his eyes closed. his owner talked at me (it wasn’t a conversation) while i ate and told me all about hiking with brownie. thankfully someone at laughing heart had given him a lot of information about hiking with a dog and had reset his expectations.

i finished lunch and carefully escaped from listening jail. (it wasn’t bad, but only because i was interested in the things he was telling me.) i got back on trail and again pushed my pace a bit.

i like to listen to podcasts in the afternoon, so i did some of that while i crossed some bridges at the bottom of the valley and climbed up the other side. when i got to the top, i had pretty good signal, so i called magz who was working in the garden. we chatted for a good while until i started down the other end and started to lose service. i try to call her a lot on the weekends because i know she gets lonely then.

the rest of the day was a descent, river crossing, and another ascent to get to the shelter trail, which was another .3, but i’m betting it’s more like .399. i got to the shelter and two hikers, twix, and ‘captain jack’ were there. i set up in the shelter, as it’s supposed to rain tonight, took a bath, and did some journalling. at some point captain jack noticed something crawling on the wall behind twix, and it was a hornet the size of my thumb. i’m pretty sure it was one of the japanese murder hornets.

we’re probably going to lose rocket tomorrow for a bit as he has a thing he’s got to do off trail. he’s going to hike ahead, and then try to catch up to us.

some additional images from today: