Rainy days and big butt bypass

Starting in the rain

The morning of our 28th day on the trail was rainy. We woke up at Jerry’s Cabin Shelter to a steady drizzle, which was considerably less than the heavy rain we heard most of the night. Pitching a tent in the rain is a precarious task. Cody packed up as much as he could from inside the store first. I walked over to the bear box to grab our Ursack and Turk backpack with their food. As he moved things to the dry shelter, Cody quickly took down the tent and unceremoniously stuffed it into his backpack. The lining of his backpack separated the wet tent fly from the rest of his dry gear.

Big Butt Bypass

The rain seems to be letting up a little more, so after a cup of coffee and a quick breakfast, we set off on our 16 mile hike. It rained all morning. At one point, the rain fell so hard that we had a hard time hearing each other. The trail turned into a small stream in some sections. But despite the rain, I still had to stop and take a photo next to the sign that said ‘Big Butt Bypass’. How could I let that go?

After 3 hours of walking in the rain, it finally started to let up. However, the Turk’s Ruff Wear Waterproof Jacket held its own! He doesn’t seem to mind walking in the rain when he wears it. In fact, he seems to really enjoy it! She was trotting up and down the trail, tail high and ears hanging down.

Better weather

We trudged to Flint Mountain Shelter, where we took shelter and had lunch. After a quick lunch, the sun was trying to shine. The rain was letting up and we were feeling good! As we walked further, the afternoon turned out to be beautiful! This was the first day that my energy was greater than Cody’s. I was flying up mountains in front of him. It’s usually the other way around. I’m usually the one trailing behind Cody while he seems to effortlessly tackle big hills.

The three of us arrived at our destination at the Hogbach hut around 4:00. We had walked 16 miles. We enjoyed the sunniest and warmest part of the day around a campfire that our friend Billy Goat had already made when we arrived at the shelter. Cody set up the tent and rain fly to dry in the sun. I hung up our wet clothes and our raincoats.

While we waited for our friend Night Crawler to show up at camp, we all ate dinner, welcomed friends as they entered camp, and watched as a beautiful sunset filled the horizon from the nearby mountain ridge.

Nightcrawler birthday

This day was also especially exciting because it was Night Crawler’s birthday. Living up to his trail name, he finally showed up at camp around 9:30 p.m. Cody had broken a bunch of sticks and written the words «Happy Birthday» on the floor of the shelter. Those of us in the shelter poked our heads out of our respective sleeping bags to murmur happy birthday as Night Crawler began preparing his sleeping pad.

Mouse in the shelter

And just as I was falling asleep, Cody suddenly woke up with a start! I felt his hand hit my head! Surprised, I jumped up in bed to understand what had happened. A mouse had just passed by his hand that was resting near my head! We laughed quietly, trying not to make a big scene while people were trying to sleep. After the excitement died down, we both fell asleep.

Beginning of the 29th

We were looking forward to our hike when we woke up this morning. Cody usually looks ahead in FarOut to plan the day and see what we will pass as we walk. This day we plan to hike 10 miles, which is starting to feel like more of a short day than a full day of hiking. But we were going to walk on Big Bald. It’s just what it sounds like. It is a very «big» climb towards a really impressive «Calvo». That’s part of the reason we only ran 10 miles.

Slow start

The morning was cold and I wasn’t ready to wake up when everyone else was…especially Turkenna. When sleeping in shelters, we make sure to keep Turk out of others’ space and quiet if people are still sleeping. He woke up with bright eyes and a bushy tail! The first time I reluctantly got up with her to let her pee and get some energy out. But I was the first to get out of bed, so I decided to try to put her back to bed with me. My efforts were useless. She tried her best to be obedient, but she squirmed and squirmed under the quilt until she could sit still longer. His head peeked out from under the blanket. I sat down to keep an eye on her as she jumped out of the shelter and sniffed around the stove, waiting for Cody or I to get up to give her breakfast. Finally I nudged Cody to get up and go feed him. I’m not normally a morning person, and this particular morning I found it particularly difficult to motivate myself to move. Cody got up and made his breakfast. Then he brought me and the breakfast bar and all I needed to make myself a cup of coffee from bed while he started packing our backpacks. Breakfast in bed on a cold morning. What more can I ask for?

We didn’t leave the shelter until almost 10:00, hours after we’re normally on the trail. But with only 10 miles (or so we thought) we were in no hurry. We spent most of the day walking with our friends Night Crawler and Apollo. It’s so nice to have friends to chat with while we walk.

Turk wants a sandwich

We all stopped for lunch at a spring. Off the trail, Turk rarely gets human food, especially while we eat. But on the road the rules are a little lax. She eats some peanut butter or salami while we have lunch. Unfortunately, this has started to form the not-so-great habit of begging…something he never does out of character. Apollo and Night Crawler didn’t seem to mind because they know she’s generally very well behaved. But I have high expectations for her and I was realizing that I might need to set some limits for her while we eat. But realistically, we can keep feeding her bits of food because she deserves a little treat and I’m a sucker.

Great bald views

Anyway, that afternoon we walked around Big Bald. The views were really great up there. Turk had fun running through the tall grass, sniffing out small bugs and digging holes. Even though we started so late, we arrived at our shelter so early in the day that we decided to hike to the campground about 6 miles down the trail. A group of friends were planning to camp there that night as well, so we were eager to stay with them.

Helene Trails and Damage Community

We usually wait until we reach camp before dinner, but this day we were hungry enough to stop at Whistling Gap for dinner and a much-needed rest for our legs.

As we hiked toward Spivey Gap, we hiked a section of trail that had been severely affected by Hurricane Helene. It was amazing to see how many trees had fallen. Looking towards a bowl between the mountain peaks, almost all the trees were stacked on top of each other. We tried to imagine how much time and labor it took for workers to clear the way for the trail. I kept thinking about how grateful I am to walk a trail that people worked so hard to repair after such a devastating storm. As entire towns continue to rebuild, this trail that is so special to millions of people was valued enough to be rebuilt alongside those communities. It was humiliating.

We arrived at the Spivey Gap campground just before sunset. All of our friends had their tents set up around the campsite. We found a flat place and set up our own tent. Turkenna wasted no time snuggling under the tent blanket while we spent time with friends at the end of the day.

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