Day 16: The Sandal Messenger

Hiked 2.9 miles, staying at Spence Field shelter.

Today was supposed to be a zero day, but like all of our rest days it wasn't.  At least this time we kept it to an actual Nero for once.  It was supposed to rain all day with serious thunderstorms in the afternoon.  It is now 6:30 pm and it hasn't hit yet.  Just goes to show that you shouldn't plan around weather because it changes quickly.  We had wanted to take the zero today since the weather was going to be rough and we need to slow down anyway because we don't want to be at Clingmans and Newfound Gap till Saturday.

Everyone else in the shelter left bright and early.  The four of us (Long Gone is still with us) relaxed all morning and it was awesome.  I'm reading a collection of writings by John Muir and I've been really enjoying it so it was great to make a dent in it.  Since we had plenty of time I also made the most amazing quesadillas in my pot lid for brunch.  Late in the morning Long Gone found a sandal.  Remember this fact for later...

Relaxing in the shelter

Awesome quesadillas!

In the early afternoon a ridge runner showed up.  Ridge runners are volunteers that help maintain the AT and help out the rangers.  He informed us in a very aggressive manner that we were not allowed to take zero days in the park and that we needed to move along.  Given that he wasn't a ranger and it didn't say anything about this on our permit we were inclined to plead ignorance if a ranger showed up, but then Medicine Cabinet showed up (read yesterday's post) and we found out that her boyfriend/husband is just as crazy so we decided we might as well do the quick hike to the next shelter.  It was hard to leave though as the shelter was empty and was a very nice one that was also very protected from the weather.

The hike was theoretically uphill, but it was pretty flat and we made decent time.  Lo and behold the shelter was packed.  We managed to squeeze in, people were very amicable about it due to the theoretical thunderstorms and hail tonight.  We currently have 19 people in a 12 person shelter...  Most are day hikers but we also are here with Emperor, Titan and Kokopelli. 

So you are probably wondering about the sandal...  Well we were hanging in the shelter and noticed someone had a matching sandal hanging from their pack.  When asked about it he said a thru hiker had given it to him because he lost the other one and didn't want to carry the dead weight.  Long Gone decided to run back to the old shelter and fetch the other one...even though the day hiker would be there tomorrow...  So we are timing him, hopefully he gets back before the thunderstorm hits.  Someone just checked the barometer on their watch and it is below 900 and falling fast so the storm is coming.

Update: Final sandal fetching time was 1:08, Long Gone has decided to carry the pair north until he finds the thru hiker that lost them or he reaches Katahdin.  This is even though the shoes don't fit him.  Maybe we should nickname him Overacheiver.