[AUG. 3rd] - Hiking Day 3

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
-Lao Tzu

Start:  Wildcat Peak D
Stop:  Carter Notch Hut
Today:  3.0 mi
Total:  19.4 mi

Before continuing with today's happenings I should warn you I have a terrible sense of direction.  We stayed in a cheap motel last night before tackling 2 very tough days on the trail.  I left the hotel room so I would have more room to spread my gear on the ground and re-arrange (cram it) in my pack.  When done, I openned the door to our room and stepped in...or I thought it was our room.  The shocked look of the old, bald man with thick glasses standing next to his bed convinced me otherwise.  Maybe I got turned around or the left door looked like the right door.  Anyhow, I blurted out a quick "sorry, wrong room!" as I lunged for the escape hatch.

We got a ride to Wildcat from the nearly 80 year old mother of the lady who runs the hostel we'll be staying at tomorrow night.  She was swirving back and forth but it was better than walking 10 miles to the trailhead!  While I was pretending the swirving was to avoid imaginary squirrels, one of the favorite topics of trail life came up: hiker stink.  Molly, our 20/20 vision chauffeur,  told us that she raised boys and has never smelled anything quite like the hiker stench.  "It's well beyond B.O." she concluded.

The Gondolla ride up Wildcat seemed quicker than yesterday and before we knew it we were back on the A.T. heading north on the balk peak of Wildcat D.  Ahead of me was a wall of pine trees with a dark, narrow gap where the trail rose skyward up wet brown/gray rocks.  As I stepped forward on the very first boulder a great gust of cold wind blew at me like the cold breath of the mountain.  Bad omen?

The trail was a roller coaster today with steep climbs and scary descents.  I tried to convince myself that whichever peak I was on was the last one before getting to the hut for lunch.  Several peaks later we made it to Wildcat Peak A where the trail plummeted over 1000 feet in .8 miles.  Luckily, neither of us had any bad falls and we made it to Carter Notch Hut in a nick of time as it began to drizzle. 

The drizzle didn't last long but at the Hut we realized we couldn't make it to IMP shelter as Heather's knee was giving her a little trouble.  Hopefully, by stopping now and by sharing a single bunk for the bargain price of $40 (Normally $120), we would ease Heather's knee in to hiking mode a bit more.  In the end, nobody showed up in our bunkroom and we had the entire room to ourselves!

Sleeping in the woods, even with howling winds would have been quieter than the bunkhouse that night.  In the bunkroom to our left were a handful of kids bouncing around the room as if their parents laced their skittles with amphetamines.  To our right was a bunch of old hens clucking away all night as they drank bottles of wine they hiked up with.  At one point, the four of them were giggling so loud I swear they were having a tickle fight!

-DADDY LONG LEGS