In the fetal position

When I woke up, today was very up in the air. There was a nasty storm moving through, so I was hesitant to leave in the morning. I ended up lounging around for most of the day. Weathe forcasts made it seem the storm would be gone by 2-3PM. I decided that I wanted a short day into Neel's Gap tomorrow, so I was determined to make it to Wood's Hole Shelter today. I hit trail around 2:15PM. On my descent of Big Cedar mountain I went into lightening position for about 20 minutes riding out a thin ban of severe weather I knew was coming. Once the weather passed, it started to cleap up. There were nice views here and there, so I toke some photos and moved on. I also got some photos of me in lightening position, and hiking in the rain. The trail was either flooded, muddy, eroded, or all of the above during todays hike, we thru-hikers cause a lot of damage to the trail, and I do here by take some of the responsibility for this. As I arrived at the full shelter, it became cold and windy fast. So I setup my tent as quickly as possible. I then cooked dinner in the shelter, it acted as a large windscreen. Tomorrow I shall go to Neel's Gap, four miloes away, not including the .4 I need to hike to get back to the trail. I think I am going to buy a new stove, and maybe even a tent if I can find one a like. Well, time to sleep, I want to get to Neel's Gap quickly tomorrow. It it now 7:59PM, one minute before hiker midnight. I am quite tired. Kirby

Ga>ME 2008