It's a good thing that I write these at the end of the day, and not during the hike. There are some days, take today for instance, where the tone would be much darker. The day began with a drizzle. I didn't start hiking until 9am, as I'm always slow to pack up a wet tent.
I made it up to Beauty Bald and the skies opened up. Having nothing to sit on and nowhere to lean I didn't attempt to put my rain pants on. 10 minutes later I regretted it, and an hour later my shoes were soaked. Not much you can do at that point but stop avoiding puddles, and embrace the rain.
The rain was heavy enough today to stop me from having lunch, soak me to the bone, turn the trail to a mucky stream, and keep me moving. I'd sing to keep my mood up, and crisscrossed paths with James, Reidiculous, Lavender, Optimus, Wendigo, Bender, and Mr. Fantastic throughout the day.
I was happy to make it to shelter, and quickly took up space to sleep on. I have no more patience for the rain.
For a long while it was just Waldo, Lavender, Optimus, Wendigo, Mr. Fantastic, and myself taking up residence in the shelter. That worked out well since it's a small shelter.
We all ate, played a game of Assassin, and started getting comfy as fast as possible. It's hard to think about doing anything other than curling up when it's raining so hard outside the shelter. Reidiculous and Chief Kickin' Wing joined our little party a few hours later, and Pearl proceeded to roll around in the dirt and shake the mud off over everyone.
Tensions ran a little high at the shelter once people started vying to squeeze in with us. We had made room for a 7th, but there were 12 people once Golem joined us. He seemed pretty beat up, and very unhappy. He was going to sleep on the picnic table, but room was squeezed for him.
The rain makes everyone a little miserable out here. I'm just happy to have dry clothes and a dry place to sleep. Some people are pretty grumbly, but tomorrow may bring sunshine so why worry about it now. We have to do a little over 16 miles tomorrow but get to camp out on top of Roan mountain. It should be cold and windy, but hopefully dry!
