Day 2 - Sparkles and Candy Pants

View from the bridge at Three Forks Crossing

Thursday April 20, 2017

I forgot to mention our first experience with "trail magic." Someone left a pair of trekking poles in the bear box at the Springer Mountain shelter. Lauren and I went and checked them out and ended up taking those babies with us. I mean, free trial run right?

I'm not going to lie, the first night was rough. I didn't sleep well at all and don't think Lauren slept a wink. She got up at least twice to use the restroom and multiple times to look around for bugs and critters. The two main reasons why I couldn't sleep were 1.) not being able to get comfortable and 2.) trying to go to bed way too early. The roof was super loud as well. It sounded like it was creaking (due to expansion and shrinkage from temperature changes maybe?), and made for a long night.

Thursday morning I woke up to find Lauren staring at me haha. She was just waiting for it to be late enough to get up and get going. Packing up wasn't too eventful. It was pretty foggy and may have rained the night before so our hanging food bag was soaked. I found one of the bags chewed through, but omitted telling this fact to Lauren.

While I got things going for breakfast Lauren "got ready." We ate protein oatmeal (aka strawberry mush) and continued packing up. I got done fairly quickly, Lauren was a different story. While she was in the restroom I re-packed her bag for her. I'm a bit anal when it comes to stuff like that; everything's got to be squared away. We got on the trail by 9:15 am, not too shabby! Only the second group to leave the shelter.

I kind of got a trail name overnight. About halfway through packing up in the morning I noticed a little ratted up hole in my shorts. It had to have been done by some mice while they were hanging up to dry. Why they'd want to eat my shorts I'll never know, but now I'm being called "Candy Pants" haha.

The trail itself was pretty anti-climactic. All downhill for the first 4 miles and pretty green/wet the whole way. We pit stopped at a nice mossy wooded area two hours in and rested, snacked, cleaned out our boots, etc. Our next stop was Three Forks Crossing to snap some pictures on a pretty bridge. Some nice gentleman who were packing up nearby were nice enough to take some for us. (We'd see a lot more of them throughout the remainder of our trip)

We totally blew it in this area though. There was a sign for some waterfalls but we didn't feel like going out of our way to see them... big mistake. According to everyone else they were pretty spectacular and fun to play in. Instead we powered through the section leap frogging and passing people on the way as we'd take our various breaks. There was one fairly rough hill, not too steep but gradual and looooong. At the top we found a few good logs to rest on again. 15-20 minutes later we were on the move though. It was maybe another 30-45 minutes to the shelter.

This shelter is similar to the first, with a 2nd floor loft that we dibs'd to set up our tent on. I think we arrived at the shelter around 2-3 ish and hadn't stopped to eat lunch or refill our water. So those were the first items of business. I was hungry, so I got started on heating water for some freeze dried lasagna. Lauren was parched, so she went down to the stream to filter. Typical.

I brought her the food and finished filtering water while she ate. The cool thing about the Platypus Gravity Works filtration system is that you can bring a full bladder of filtered water water AND a full bladder of dirty water back camp to filter or dump as you need. This turned out to be waaaay convenient both for us and those camping with us, since we usually had a bit left over to give away each morning.

After food and water it was on to cleaning up, washing up, attempting laundry, and setting up camp. All the same people, except Paul who continued on (he's a machine!) and "Heart Attack Rick" who quite, thank goodness, are at the shelter again with us tonight. We also inherited two elderly gentlemen who are from no-where, GA and so cute and nice. We've just been sitting at the table talking and filling each other in on our days. They (everyone from the previous night) all hiked together. Lauren and I blew it... I guess I'm a drill sergeant?

We were told that a Ridge Runner (official trail people who help hikers out and make sure everyone is following the rules) is planning on stopping by the shelter to make sure no one has set up a tent inside. Oops. Make sure we know how to properly clean our cookware to not to pollute the rivers and streams with food particles. Oops. AND how to dispose of extra food (not just throwing it in the woods). Oops. We are blowing it. I hope she doesn't actually come.

• People are surprised with how much I write.
• Lauren is a PA and doesn't know how to dress blisters haha.
  • Poor girl got a bad blister on day one and said nothing! By the time we reached the shelter it was too late and had already formed. *sigh*
• I'm feeling good. My right calf is tight, knees are a bit achy, but my feet are good and blister free. My back is sore, my hips feel bruised and are a bit chafed, along with my shoulders. But as far as fitness goes, I feel great.
• Tomorrow we have our first big day. 13.2 miles! This wasn't the plan, but an area we were planning on camping in has had a lot of bear sitings, so bear canisters are required. We don't have those, hence the adjustment.
• Things I worry about:
  • Running out of TP and Hand Sanitizer
  • Running out of fuel for our stove
  • Sore legs and chafing
• Koi and Jack are the older guys who are sharing the shelter with us tonight. They are so cute! I absolutely loved chatting with them. They were so adorable just sitting on the shelter porch, dangling their legs, and shooting the breeze all evening.

Left to right: Billy, Tony, Jacob, Koi, and Jack

• It was a bit slower this evening, not as good of conversation. I guess we've already gone over all the easy and typical small talk type stuff.
• Tony is a chef. Not really, but he seems really into making elaborate foods. Tonight is was rolls.
• Kristen heads to bed around 7pm.
• Jacob, another young guy around our age, came storming into camp around 6-7pm. He did 16+ miles today! Lauren and I had a good chat with him once everyone went to bed. Cool guy. He also offered Lauren some tequila, she will forever be grateful haha.
• Lauren attempted to sit down in our two-legged balance backpacking chairs and totally ate it in front of everyone! She fell right onto her back, it was priceless. This just happened to occur after the tequila was passed around...

Aftermath of the fall

• We are outside tonight in the tent. Bittersweet (the Ridge Runner) stopped by and said, "no tents in the shelter." Surprise surprise. Less mice hopefully! Lauren is not happy about it.
• Best quote of the night:
  • Chris - "What's wrong Lauren?"
  • Lauren - "A bug flew into my tequila."