Mon, 16 Oct 2006
Miles Today: 9
Total Miles: 12.25

Horrible night’s sleep! Neither Mindy nor I slept well. My problem was that I was too hot in my sleeping bag. That, and the seemingly constant wind throughout the night that gusted enough to wake me up at times.

I woke up around 8, Mindy soon thereafter. We cooked breakfast, our first meal along the trail. I had Scrambled Eggs with Bacon Bits from Backpacker’s Pantry. Horrible! Yuck! The stuff was nasty. I was looking forward to the meal, too. I have a different brand of eggs with bacon from Mountain House that I’m hoping will be better.

By the time we got things cleaned and packed up, it was already 10:30. Much later start than I was anticipating. I took us a while to get our bags repacked, though, something that will come easier as the days go by.

We hit the trail with our goal being Blackrock Hut, approximately 16 miles away. Easily accomplished…or so we thought. Our goal going into this trip was to hike around 20 miles a day and hit the huts and shelters along the way. What we didn’t take into account, what we couldn’t have known, was the condition of the trail we would be hiking. Rocks everywhere, that made the going rough on the feet and prevented my hiking poles from fully serving their purpose. Also, the trail was very much not flat. Instead, it felt like we were hiking uphill most of the day. I thought the trail would wind along the ridges with a few ascents and descents along the way. Instead, the trail seemed to purposefully climb to the top of each mountain then descend to the gap. This was going to be a good workout for us. To make matters worse, we were running low on water. 7 miles in and we hadn’t run across any streams or other sources of water yet.

Finally, we reached Calf Mountain Shelter around 1:30. We had never planned on staying at this shelter since it was only seven miles from the start, but it was a welcome sight. There was a spring nearby, so we fill up on water and rested for a bit. I had expected to reach the shelter by noon, so we couldn’t rest for long.

Thankfully, the trail descended for a while after the shelter, and it even followed a stream for a bit, a nice and relaxing change from what we had been seeing. So far, the A.T. wasn’t offering any great views of the park, instead leading us by powerlines and radio towers. I was disappointed in what I was getting from the trail so far.

The downhill portion of the trail didn’t last long as we found ourselves ascending most of the rest of the day. So far, we’ve summited Bear Den Mtn, Little Calf Mtn, Calf Mtn and one peak of Turk Mtn. Our camp tonight is on Turk Mtn. We didn’t make it to Blackrock Hut as expected, but with darkness coming, we had to stop for the night.

At this point, it’s pretty clear that we won’t be able to do the full 100 miles of the A.T. in SNP that was intended. Instead, we’re shooting for the 50 miles of the southern district of the park.

Physically, we’re holding up okay. Mindy’s feet are hurting and my shoulders are hurting (from the pack), but nothing a good night’s rest won’t cure. 9:45 - time to turn in.