punchbowl shelter to seeley-woodworth shelter

a very hard day.

last night just as we were going to bed, a thunderstorm rolled in and dumped a deluge. the wind drove some of it directly into the shelter, so i had to huddle at the back until the storm passed through. the rain quit fairly quickly, but the lightning and thunder lasted a few more hours. through it all, the peepers never stopped peeping.

though the peepers were deafeningly loud, they didn’t keep me up. i snoozed for 30 minutes at a time, waking when my bones hit the floor. the insulation on these pads only works if there is an air space below it. the second you touch down, the heat starts getting sucked out of you.

i woke pretty early, and given the mileage planned, i opted to get moving. i breakfasted and packed up, expecting to see bugs and lyric show up to cook, but it never happened. i shouldered my pack and stopped by their tents on the way out. they were just barely moving.

the day started okay, but then rapidly declined. it rained most of the day and as the day progressed, it became more windy and the temperature kept falling. i hiked alone the whole day, which was good in that i could maintain my pace.

i got to cow camp gap for lunch and then learned that the shelter was .5 mile downhill. it wasn’t raining at that moment, so i sat at the trail crossing and ate my lunch. the avocado i had wasn’t great, having a large unripe spot.

i had wanted to call magz, but i had no cell service all day. the really interesting thing was that every few miles i passed a sign reminding me that in an emergency to call 911, and with a location tag to communicate to the operator. you would think that they might have made sure you could make the call before putting in all these signs.

i also managed to break one of the stays on my umbrella. the umbrella is pretty old and in need of replacing, but it was still a bummer.

i hiked 25.6 miles and arrived at the shelter soggy and frozen. i slammed some food down my throat, deployed my sleeping bag, changed into my dry sleeping clothes, and climbed in. it took over an hour before i felt warm again.

some other hikers came in and were visibly hypothermic. they did the same as me, eating and getting into sleeping bags as quickly as possible.

thankfully the shelter had some weak cell service, so i was able to text magz. she was worried she hadn’t heard from me all day. i also found out i never got an amex bill last month in my email, and so my payment is late.

some additional images from today: