Monday, November 14, 2016
Since I went to bed so early and slept so well, it wasn’t hard getting up at 5:00. I knew the game now. Get your ass in gear and get going! It takes a while though. Gather some firewood trying not to wake the neighbors out back. Now go fill up with water and filter it into your bottles, get some coffee going and eat something. I still didn’t feel like eating, but I forced something down. My orange juice was from little vitamin C packets, and it works well. Now to deflate the air mattress, roll up the mattress and sleeping bag and pack those. Now which shoes will hurt less today? Pack the clothes up, put something in your pocket to eat along the way, then put the food on top. Cinch up the main part of the bag. Wash up best you can, treat the feet, brush the teeth, and get more water. Now I appreciated the two bottles, but to leave the filtering bag full of water as a third, and I wouldn’t pass up a spring again! It was warm, in the 60’s and even 70’s a couple of days. When you’re climbing up mountains carrying a pack, you are going to get very hot. OK, I was out by 7:30.
There were some pretty vistas, but I was all business today. When I crossed the road at Powell Gap, the post said Hightop Hut and Springs was three miles away and it was 1:00. OK, this was good. It you’re half my age, this is a piece of cake, but for me, the thought of getting to the hut in plenty of daylight was a wonderful thing. I still felt queasy all the time and couldn’t eat much, and it was difficult to drink as well. I was a little worried about it now, but knew I had to force some things down. By the time I found the sign post, the hut was only .1 mile away and it was 2:50. Oh happy days!
No one was there, but I knew it was early. Two out of three nights, I had shown up in the dark, so the same could happen, but it was a Monday night and most of the world has to work. As it turned out, I had the place to myself, and I liked it a lot. Still I was in bed by 7:00 in the upper right corner, my spot!
Your the man! Dead tired but always have time to brush your teeth. Your Dad would be proud!
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Thanks Billy. I thought about Dad a lot on that trip. He always said he did enough hiking and marching in the Army, that he never wanted to do it again. In his later years he gently rode a bike around Glenmore.