Here It Comes

Day 29

Friday April 21, 2017

Mile: 245.4 - 255.5 - 260.3

7:34am - 2:20pm : 5:18pm - 7:55pm

Hot, humid, then rain

Tented at Walnut Mountain Shelter

We climbed up and over Max Patch today. 

It is a beautiful huge bald at 4629 feet elevation. We were enjoying the hot humid day even though the clouds were gathering in the distance.

There were other thru hikers partaking in the summits glory as well as day visitors. One hiker passed and joyfully proclaimed he had just checked the weather and the rain was down for the day. The words parted from his lips and 30 seconds later we all yelled, "Here it comes!"  All off us except Shortcake saw it coming. We could see the rain cloud closing in. We threw on our rain gear and headed off the grassy plateau.

We hiked down to the safety of the forest but it was just a cooling drizzle that cooled our hot skin. We hiked to the next shelter and took refuge. We were going to stay there for the night. It was early so we decided to cook our lunch and watch the weather. As we did so we enjoyed the company of a fellow hiker, Space Jam. He was the one who gave us the faulty weather forecast at the top.

After three hours the skies cleared and we hiked on. It cleared until just before we reached the next shelter. We decided to tent. We just needed to wait a bit for the rain to soften. With precision team work we set up our tent as gracefully as synchronized swimmers.

Tomorrow we will be in Hot Springs. A quaint trail town we have been so looking forward to visit. 

Happy Hiking.