Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 54 – The edge of the hurricane
18th September 2023
Fingerboard Shelter (806.3) - Wawayanda Shelter (832.9)
Daily miles: 26.6
Total miles: 840.8
It rained hard in the night and it was still raining in the morning; not conducive to getting up in the morning! Lemonhope was up at 4:30am which is madness! The rest of us were awake at 5:30am wanting to get an early start for some bigger miles.
We knew the forecast and it was likely to rain all day, there was a hurricane to the north of us and people on trail in New Hampshire and Maine had been advised to get off trail, we were going to catch the edge of it as it blew through.
I left the shelter at 6:15am and it was hard to find the AT. We had to follow some blue blazes and then the AT should have been right there, but I saw Toe in the bushes – she said she was having an emergency poo – and then we bushwhacked our way back to the trail.
Leaving the shelter in the dark
It was so dark and it was misty too so it was hard to see anything, but the rain was only light. I was hiking with Toe for most of the morning. She would pull ahead of me on the uphills and then I would catch her back up on the downhills, and so the morning went on.
I caught up to her as she was struggling down a literal cliff and I took the blue blaze around it; it was too wet to be messing around with slippy rocks. Then we did The Lemon Squeeze, a narrow bit of rock you have to squeeze through. There were quite a lot more steep rock parts going up and down, more than I remember there being.
Shortly after we crossed the interstate via a bridge.
Wet rocks
Toe in the Lemon Squeeze
Me in the Lemon Squeeze
Into the mist
Crossing the Interstate again
The rest of the morning was just a slog through the wet. Puddles on the trail meant wet feet straight away so there was little point avoiding them. I caught up to Lemonhope who said he was “lollygagging”. I should have gone ahead but said I would stay behind, he was going kinda slow and I was struggling because I was really hungry. My stomach was letting out a deep growl and I didn’t have much to sedate it. I had eaten my Milky Way and I was just munching through my sweets. It wasn’t enough food.
Blowdowns
Rocks
A bit of a view
A bit more of a view
Bog boards
A waterfall
The mist through the trees
Slippy slab rock
The ice cream place was 16 miles into the day. It wasn’t really the day for ice cream but it was food of sorts and only 0.1 off trail.
So when Lemonhope decided to go up onto the wet slippy slab rock I took the blue blaze around it and basically ran to the ice cream shop. I got there at 1:35pm. I was the only person there. Got a double scoop; cookie dough and chocolate with brownie pieces in.
Bellvale Farms Creamery wasn’t busy today
I was so wet I was literally dripping on the floor but I still ate ice cream
I inhaled it. Lemonhope and May Queen came there too and Toe said she didn’t want ice cream so she carried on to the shelter. We still had 10 miles to go. May Queen plugged her phone in and they told her there was a charging station for hikers around the side of the building. Outside. In the rain.
Lemonhope and I left to go back to trail. Past the hotdog stand which was closed and I was very sad about that because I was still very hungry.
Once more into the wet
No hotdogs today
1360 miles to Georgia
We were back on the trail about 2:20pm and it was still raining. It hadn’t stopped at all, all day.
The trail started off ok and then it quickly turned to slippery slab rock. This continued for about 6 miles. It was so intense. Half way in the rain got really heavy right at the worst possible time. Just when it was really treacherous. There were no blue blazes around this part either. I fell 3 times and slipped about 300 times.
River and rain clouds
Does this look steep, because it was really steep
Does it look like it’s pouring with rain, because it was
There was one part with metal rebar which was more than steep, it was sheer. I launched my trekking poles down and climbed down backwards all the time the rain was torrential. One slip and it would have been a nasty fall.
The very steep descent with rebar
There were lots of parts which went up above the trees and it would have been a lovely scenic part of the trail on a nice sunny day but the rain never stopped.
Because it rained so hard the next part of the trail was a gushing river, with puddles up to knee height in some places. I was just wading through.
The trail was a literal creek
I arrived at the New York / New Jersey border.
Crossing the state border
By this point I was pretty soaked. My top half wasn’t too bad. It was damp. But my shorts were soaked through. I needed to wee and I was so wet that it crossed my mind that I could just wet myself. It wouldn’t make any difference to how wet I was. But it’s gross and it would smell so I had to stop to wee. I feels so horrible peeling off wet layers and pulling them back up. They never go back in the same place so it’s always uncomfortable for a while.
I had been going so slowly over the slick wet rocks, not wanting to break a leg or anything, but now the trail was a little more like trail it was easier to move a bit quicker. Now the mission was on to get to the shelter and get out of these wet clothes.
It was so miserable.
The trail to the shelter
I arrived just after 6:30pm. Toe and Lemonhope had arrived not long before me. Pyro and Cal were there too. The shelter is tiny, and now it’s pretty wet because all our wet stuff is in there.
We all one by one announced we were getting naked at the back of the shelter to get into some dry clothes, and we will all have to put on soaking wet clothes tomorrow. I rang out my shorts. So much water came out. I’m not sure if my rain skirt is just too old and it failed to be waterproof or it’s just a case of nothing is staying dry in 12 hours of rain, and rain that heavy.
I ate what I had left in my food bag which was half a bag of goldfish and a slice of cake. It’s 20:30 now and I feel really hungry. I’ve also not drunk enough today, but I didn’t want to drink a load now because I would have to get up for a wee in the night and it’s so wet out and I’m so dry.
Loads of mosquitoes about in the shelter and they are attracted to the light of my phone. Loads more to say but that’s it for now because of the mozzies!
