Saturday, September 15, 2012

2012 AT Section Day 2

Appalacian Trail - Day 2 - 8/20/12
Stony Brook Shelter - Wintturi Shelter (9.9 Miles)

When we arise in the morning the AT-ers are long gone.  The sun is shining as we pack up and sit by the remains of the fire and eat breakfast. 

I read ahead in the guidebook and inform the gang that we’ve got a Ladder ahead and we’re all a bit concerned about how Lula is going to get around it.   When we get there I’m ahead of the pack, but Lula really likes being with the lead hiker so she’s with me this morning.  When she sees the ladder she makes quick work of it.  Quickly finding a way down and around before we can even wonder how we’ll get her around it ourselves. 

We enjoy the long long decent of wonderful switchback to stony brook where the bridge has also been washed out by Irene.  The water is cool and wonderful as we half bathe while lula splashes around.    I said, we should have shadow camped here last night commenting on how calming the bubbling brook was.  Only to 5 feet further down the trial see where someone had actually beat us to it and was tucked away next to some trees. 


The trail rolls up and down with a few road crossings until we stop to eat lunch at Lakota Lake Lookout.  While this may have been a nice lookout in the spring, at this time of year, if you stand on your tippy toes in one location you can actually catch a glimps of the lake.  The lack of view doesn’t bother us and we spread out on a couple of stones to bask in the sun for a bit while we snack away on our trail mix.  


After passing lots of SOBOs throughout the afternoon we treat ourselves with another rest at "the lookout." A privately owned cabin on the top of the next climb that the owner lets hikers visit for views, but doesn’t want campers. Although it was obvious people have disregarded this and have been camping here for some time (more on this later).




On the last decent down to the Winturri shelter from the back of the group we hear.  “OH OW OW OW.  SHIT OW FUCK FUCK FUCK!  WHY WON’T YOU STOP HURTING!” I drop my pack and start running back only to see Leah still walking.  Thankfully she hasn't broken her leg or anything, only a pretty rugged bee sting.  

We grab some wood and have a fire while playing rummy 500 after setting up camp.  Trail Dawg, Agent Orange, and another fella (SOBOs) show up and fill us in on the latest and greatest of what lies ahead for us on the trail.  Then lots and lots of AT talk, although these guys at least seem a bit more down to earth than the guys we shared camp with the night before. 

QOTD - "We call those guys, ‘daywalkers.’"

1 comment:

leeapeea said...

I still have the mark on my ankle from the sting and all the poison that little fucker pumped into me. 'Twasn't no honey bee, that bug.