Day 50
Start: Mountaineer Shelter
End: Campsite Past Laurel Fork Shelter
Miles Hiked: 18
Miles on AT: 422.3
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Yes, we are ramping up the mileage! I want to make sure we can realistically finish this thing, so I’m kicking things up a notch.
It rained all night last night and the constant pitter-patter of the falling drips kept me up. Plus, my body didn’t feel tired enough from our hike yesterday to let me fall asleep immediately. Needless to say, I was a bit sleepy starting out this morning. By the time we got up and going, the rain had slowed and it was only the water on the leaves that came down when the wind blew. The sun was even shining!
We got back on trail around 8:40 am, dry despite our wet tent. The walk was pleasant; we found the most ideal spot to enjoy our second breakfast, complete with a bench and a view.
During our zero day, we started reading Albert Camus’s essay on the Myth of Sisyphus and the absurdity of life. Instead of taking the text at face value, we related his reasoning to thru hiking the AT. Camus asks whether life is worth living whereas we ask whether the hike is worth hiking.
The analogy works surprisingly well.
We haven’t finished the essay yet, but it raises a lot of questions. If you don’t think the hike has any meaning, then should you just quit? Or, is it valid to hope that some life-changing insight will enlighten you once you’ve finished the trail? If you assign a certain meaning to your hike are you just deluding yourself into thinking completing the whole thing is worthwhile? My hike has a meaning that I’ve given to it, but also more meaning that I have yet to discover. Obviously, I think the hike is worth hiking to the end.
Most of our day passed uneventfully. We ran into a flip-flopper named Oz from Canada who had completed the trail on his 3rd attempt last year and was hiking it again this year. We chatted for a good while about trails and the AT and then kept on moving.
Janitor’s ankle was starting to hurt at this point. It was later in the day, so we started moving a bit more slowly. We had a big descent to tackle, but we took a number of breaks so he could rest his ankle a bit.
Our last big effort (or so we thought) was climbing down about 200 feet of uneven rock stairs. It may not sound like a lot, but when you’ve hiked all day with a pack and you have to make sure you don’t trip and fall down a set of steep rocks, it’s real work!
Luckily we made it without any injuries and were greeted by Laurel Fall. The force of the falling water generated a constant breeze that we could feel from where we were standing. We were content with viewing the falls from afar and took a few pictures before continuing on to find our shelter.
The search for the shelter was the last obstacle of the day – and we never found it. According to my map and Google Maps, it was supposed to be right on the AT, but it wasn’t. We spent a good while backtracking and looking for missed signs to no avail. I suspect it was on a blue blaze nearby, but I didn’t want to do the extra walking to find it.
Luckily we found the perfect campsite near the river. Another hiker came in shortly after us and said she couldn’t find the shelter either. Because we had spent time trying to locate the shelter, we got to camp pretty late, around 8 pm. Janitor was so tired he had to lay down for a bit. I attempted to establish a bear hang, but left it to him once it started getting dark.
After everything was said and done, we got into our tent around 10:30 pm. Janitor had to hang the bag in the dark and I waited for him with my headlamp on so he could find his way back to our site and eat dinner.
I hope I get a good night’s sleep tonight. The river water is loud, so I’ll have to use my earplugs. On the bright side, we weren’t rained on today!
And that’s day 50.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.