Gimpfoots Don't Melt

Date:    July 20-21
Start:    Skyline Dr. MP 66.7 (1.2 miles south of Swift Run Gap) 
End:     Pinefield Gap
Today's miles: 10.1
Total (cumulative) AT miles: 70.1
Time: ~8hrs


Jen and I planned for a two-night backpack to get in some good miles this past weekend. We both got off early from work on Friday so we could hike the 2.1 miles up Hightop Mountain to camp in or near the hut. We were hoping to have the hut to ourselves since most of the thru-hikers should be well north of SNP by now. We started off too quickly...I let Rosie set the pace and the next thing we realized we were both wet with sweat and soaked. It wasn't that hot, but the humidity was thick, thick and thick! I had on a cotton shirt, which was pretty much guaranteed to never dry out the entire weekend. Fortunately, I had a clean technical shirt to wear the next day. I don't recall the exact time, but we summitted Hightop after about an hour and a half. We had been to the top before last year, but came up from the other side. I had forgotten that the shelter is a good 1/2 mile on down the mountain from the summit. 

We finally arrived at the first spring above the hut when we ran into a hiker. Not sure if he was section hiking or thru-hiking. We didn't catch his trail name, so we just referred to him as "Blue Shirt Dude". So Blue Shirt Dude busted our hopes and told us there were already three hikers in the shelter. Bummer. Oh well, we brought the tent so no problemo. We were just hoping we could build a fire and spread out a bit in the shelter. The three hikers already at the hut were "Sleeping Bear", "Puddle Jumper" and "Slayer". The first two were young men, the last was a young woman. They were nice, but very quiet (which is good I guess). We walked behind to find a tent site, and since no one else was tenting, we had first choice. We got the biggest most private site and set up the LightPath. There was a chance of rain/storms, so we took the time to give it a solid & taut pitch. Didn't want to have to scramble around in a storm and fix things.

It was then when things started going wrong.  Not tragically wrong, but "Really?!??" wrong. While making our dinner of freeze-dried fettuccine alfredo with chicken, I made sure the bag was sealed, then turned it up to make sure I had mixed it well on the bottom. Well, the bag seal was weak, and I lost most of the alfredo juice. Right outside the tent. Four feet outside the tent.  In bear country. Really?!??  Thank goodness for Rosie. She ate the pasta & chicken bits that spilled, and I poured water over the alfredo stain in the dirt to dry and dilute it. After all this, I checked on the dinner and realized there wasn't enough liquid to finish "cooking" the pasta. So I boiled some more water and added it. We then proceeded to eat watered down fettuccine alfredo with chicken. After we ate all the bits, there was about a cup of watered down alfredo juice left. Once again, thank goodness for Rosie. She slurped it right up. We packed up all the food, hung the bear bag, went behind a tree to potty, then called it a night. About an hour later (I think it was the distant thunder and lightning that woke me up) I remembered there were dog biscuits still in Rosie's pack, which was about 10ft outside the tent.  Really?!??  Not as close as the alfredo stain, but now I'm thinking we have a bear buffet right outside our front door. I debated on whether to get up and go out in the icky wetness and do something about the biscuits, but then decided to just let the damn bears (and/or mice) have at it. I heard Jen stir just about then, and she announced she had to go pee (again). Me: "While you're up, can you toss Rosie's backpack up a tree?"  Not as good as the bear pole, but whatever. We then both snuggled back down to sleep. I think it was sometime between 2am and 3am when we were both rudely awakened by the distinct, unmistakable sound of Rosie's gradual crescendo to a major puke event. Oh God, REALLY?!??!!!!  I grabbed her from the back of the tent and dragged her to the door, reached up with my other hand to unzip the zipper, while hollering at Jen to "turn on the light!" Jen fumbled with the light, I fumbled with the zipper, and Rosie fumbled her dinner (including the alfredo sauce) right inside the door. Ugh. I managed to get her into the vestibule for round 2, but round 2 was only about 1/5th of round 1. In fact, round 1 was pooling towards our sleeping pads about now. We hastily got everything we could out of harm's way, but both of our pads got a taste, my sleeping bag got a taste on one corner, and I think Rosie stepped in it on the way out to the vestibule, because she tracked some back in in various spots. Ugh, Ugh, Ugh. I don't expect to ever eat Backpacker's Pantry Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken again. It is a smell that has scarred me for months (or even years) to come. We used up all of our bath wipes to clean up as best we could, and got it cleaned up enough that we could attempt to go back to sleep. I spent the rest of the night keeping away from one corner of my bag and pad. So now we have a) an alfredo stain in the dirt, b) dog biscuits up a tree, and c) Pedigree Little Champions with alfredo sauce in the vestibule. It was like a drive-thru for just about any hungry wildlife that should happen to come by. *sigh* 

A couple of hours later, the drizzles and light rain turned into a complete downpour! Thank goodness the Lightpath is a bomber tent. We stayed dry, even though it came down so hard the mud splashed up the sides of the tub floor. On the plus side, we were also hoping that bears don't like the rain much. And that alfredo stain in the dirt? A distant memory. We both woke up for good around 7am. It was still raining lightly, and there was a lot of "tree rain" whenever there was even the slightest breeze. We laid there for about an hour, then realized it probably wasn't going to stop raining, and even if it did, the tree rain would last all morning. So we packed up and got out of the tent. I took all the wet gear, and Jen took all the dry gear and we hit the trail. Eight miles exactly to get to Pinefield Gap and the waiting Escape.

The forecast was misleading. We both thought the sun would finally break through late morning or early afternoon. I had grand plans of laying the tent out to dry while we ate lunch in the sun. Eh, no. The rest of the day could be summed up in one word: WET. We hiked down Hightop in the drizzle, bushwhacked our way up Roundtop in the rain (the trail was incredibly overgrown), hiked around Flattop Mountain in the tree rain, ate lunch by sitting smack-dab in the middle of an access road in the rain, and hiked and up and over Weaver Mountain in the wet fog to the Escape. Jen got a phone signal and checked in with Kenny on Flattop. I think she was getting a little worn down, and talking to Kenny and taking a pack off break was enough to lift her spirits. To help pass the time and keep us entertained, we played a "name game". Jen picked the letter "L", so we spent the last couple of miles thinking of famous people with a last name starting with "L". It was fun, but we really need to pick a new letter for our next hike. As we hiked, we had decided that camping that night was pointless. Even though I had a spare tent (a clean, dry and puke free tent) waiting in the Escape, we still had pukey pads and I had a pukey bag, and neither one of us wanted to deal with that. 

We had dry socks and shoes in the Escape, which felt like heaven on the toes. We ran on down to Loft Mountain wayside for Diet Pepsi's, and then I showed Jen our campsite I reserved at Loft Mountain for August. Then we headed back north, picked up Jen's Yaris and went to Big Meadows for  a hot meal. It was still foggy and wet, so no photo-expedition. In fact, I hadn't even brought my fancy camera since I was thinking "backpacking" and not "photo-x". After Big Meadows, we skeedaddled it out of there to head home for a hot shower and a warm bed.


I spent my Sunday washing the tent, my pad and my sleeping bag. Everything is squared away and ready for the next trip!

Oh, and Rosie puked again on Monday. Must be a stomach bug.