Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 77 – Can I keep the cat please?
11th october 2023
Rockfish Gap (1334.1) - Maupin Field Shelter (1354.9)
Daily miles: 21.3
Total miles: 1362.8
I had a good nights sleep although stayed up too late watching Taskmaster! In the morning Sharky made breakfast for everyone, a huge omelette packed full of veggies and cheese and a side of hash browns and biscuits.
This will keep me full all day!
Sharky has a chicken farm so the eggs were from his chickens of course. He has a no kill chicken farm (or no kill egg farm I guess is more accurate) with about 100 chickens (maybe more). Where most hens are incinerated at 18 months when they don’t lay enough eggs, these chickens live out their life running around on this farm, no matter how many eggs they produce.
The breakfast was delicious, but all this fresh food was playing havoc with my digestive system and I had to go and sit in the bathroom for a moment while it all passed straight through me.
We went to look at the chickens. Chickens are so weird. Cockerels are even more weird.
Sharky and his chickens
Cockerels are weird
Tiny Dinosaurs
What a wonderful place to live
We packed everything up. I despaired at the weight of my pack; it really shouldn’t be this heavy! This is like PCT weight. My pack is definitely the heaviest of them all, although there isn’t that much in it when everyone is fully loaded with food. I do have some luxuries that I could get away without but, eh.
This is Maybe and I love her
The gang
I put some KT tape on my ankle – thanks to May Queen for donating some of hers because I forgot to get any – it feels like it’s helping a bit. Pretty sure it’s tendonitis.
Taped my ankle
We piled back into Sharky’s car and he dropped us back at Rockfish Gap where he had picked us up yesterday.
I was back on trail at 10:45am so I had already prepared myself for getting to the shelter in the dark. We all hiked alone today I think. We probably all needed a bit of alone time after a few days of being together all the time.
Pee-po
The first couple of miles were hot! The cold snap was over and the temperatures were on the rise again. I shouldn’t have drunk that cup of tea this morning because I am peeing an unusual amount today. I had to stop 3 times to pee in the first hour. Not normal for me at all.
The trail was pretty nice this morning though, a few ups and downs but a lot of switchbacks and nicely graded. I stopped 7 miles in for a break and a snack. I wasn’t hungry really after that huge breakfast, but if I ate something my pack would be lighter. It’s not THAT heavy, but it’s always a shock with so much food (which I probably won’t eat half of).
W J Mayo homeplace
Follow the white blazes
May Queen joined me and then Lemonhope came by and had a sit with us. We saw a couple of British day hikers and we sent them the wrong way, but May Queen ran after them and got them back on track.
Lemonhope left and then I left a few minutes later. There was a climb to do up to Humpback mountain and I needed to get it done. The climb was actually pretty chill and the switchbacks were nice. I caught up to and overtook the British couple. They asked me how many miles a day I was doing and their second question was “How do you charge your phone?”. It’s funny that is what everyone wants to know.
Three quarters of the way up is a blue blaze which leads 0.25 miles out to Humpback rocks which claims to have a great view. I wasn’t going to bother but I saw Lemonhope stashed his pack so I did too and went down the side trail without my pack which felt wonderful. The rocks were cool. Too many people there though! Lots of day hikers from an easy access trail head.
The view from Humpback rocks
Back at the junction Toe caught up and I thought they were all in front of me for the rest of the day. I saw Lemonhope a few times throughout the afternoon but I didn’t see anyone else.
I had barely drunk any water today but I was on my 6th pee which is strange.
Late afternoon light
There were some really rocky parts of the trail today and I found them slow going. My ankles felt weak and I was going steadily through the rocks so I didn’t fall over because I have tripped so many times today. The annoying thing is I keep tripping mostly on my left foot and that really jolts the painful tendon.
I would say the pain is like a 2 out of 10. More discomfort than pain. But when I kick a rock it’s more like a 5 out of 10. It also feels hot and itchy but I don’t know if that’s just the tape. I’ve resisted scratching it all day.
Lemonhope in the distance
Fungus
All I can do is continue walking and listening to podcasts to distract me. I’ve been listening to “A Short History Of…” and I reacquainted myself with the story of Henry VIII and the origins of Las Vegas.
There were a couple of rocky outcrops where there were some nice views but otherwise we were in the trees, and the trail was covered in leaves which hide a lot of the rocks!
Rocky outcrops with nice views
As it started to get dark I came out of the trees and walked through a couple of fields which were a bit brighter than the forest so I could resist putting my headlamp on for as long as possible but by 7:10pm it was too dark to see and the risk of tripping was too high.
Evening light
I probably walked for half an hour by headlamp until I found the junction for the shelter. When I arrived it was just May Queen and Lemonhope there and I was confused as Toe was in front of me but I hadn’t seen her. She came in about 15 minutes later and said she had stopped to take a couple of snack breaks so I must have passed her at some point.
Sunset
It was a really nice temperature on my night hike. After the initial warmth of this morning the afternoon cooled off a lot and you could feel that autumnal air. By the time I had laid out my sleep stuff and got into my sleep clothes it was feeling pretty cold so I ate a couple of brownies, because that’s all I could be bothered with, and then aimed to lay down as soon as possible.
We have another hiker in the shelter, One Step, and he made a point of pointing out the bear hanging pole, which was really hard to use – especially if you’re short and have no strength in your arms!
Watching May Queen and Lemonhope struggle to hang their bags did not give me a lot of hope but with May Queen’s help we got my bag up there first go.
There are a few deer hanging around by the shelter.
My ankle is super sore and lying down was a priority.
