Day 36-The Wind Doth Blow and Blow

April 23-9.1 miles-Cherry Gap Shelter to Clyde Smith Shelter-AT mile 370.5

As expected, we woke up to rain. My plan with the leaves worked well. No mud on the tent, and the inside dry. Of course it got wet when I packed it up, but that can’t be helped. Pee Bottle ended up setting up his tent after dark last night. He said the mice were too much. So, he also packed up a wet tent. He took off ahead of us. Sure Foot headed out a couple of minutes before me. 

I really thought I wouldn’t be taking many photos today because the weather wasn’t great, but there was still some nice photo ops, even though they weren’t views. 

SF told me what this is...starts with a “V”...I think. 

Nice little cascade of water. 

Trail through a foggy meadow. Siddhartha had set up camp to the left of this photo. He was still in his tent when we went by. 

Pretty much as soon as the rain stopped, the wind started. And, boy, did it blow! A couple of times I was nearly blown sideways. It blew Sure Foot’s pole such that it swung and hit him in the face! But, we just kept trudging along. Finally, we came to a rock outcropping that blocked the wind. It happened to be noon, so we decided it was a good spot for lunch. 

I sat on the flatish looking rock.

From lunch we just had a little over three miles to go for the day. We still hadn’t caught up to PB, but we were following his boot prints. 

We did get a brief respite from the wind when the trail dropped below the hillside. It was really quite pleasant. 

We arrived at the Clyde Smith Shelter at 2:30. PB wasn’t here. We met a guy who had just taken a break at the shelter, and was continuing on, but no Pee Bottle. We don’t know what happened to him, but I suspect he might have missed the sign for the shelter. It was just a post with the word “shelter” on one side. He doesn’t have Guthook or the AWOL Guide. We are planning to leave early tomorrow to go over Roan Mtn. Maybe we’ll catch up to him if he did pass by the shelter. 

It’s kind of funny, just when we pick up a third person, we seem to lose them. Smiley is behind us, and may or may not catch us. Now PB is not with us. Hmmm...is it us???

It’s going to be chilly again tonight, and start to thunderstorm at 10:00. We’ll probably be packing up in the rain tomorrow too. At least the wind is supposed to lessen. I’m not too worried about it. Weather is a part of the AT regardless of the year (at least we are not competing for campsites with dozens of other hikers).


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