Gooch Mtn Shelter, 7.3 miles, staying in shelter

*****

Holy crap, what a day!  Thunderstormed all last night.  But the tent kept me dry!  When I rolled over and felt the bottom of the tent, it was dry, but felt like a water bed!! I stayed in my bag until it began to get light, then I strategically got everything packed.  When there was a lull in the storm I quickly exited the tent with my dry stuff and headed to drop it in the shelter.

All day I hiked in the rain–over Sassafras Mountain…wow, that was a long uphill!  Then as I made a creek crossing a thunderstorm moved in…lightning, wind, dumping buckets of rain.  This was my most insecure moment on the trail.  I was hiking by myself and felt I had overshot the shelter.  After agonizing over whether to forge ahead or turn back, I decided to turn back …cross the ever rising creek again…and either 1) find the shelter or 2) run into one of the gals from my group.  Well, after about 0.3 of a mile I ran into Donna and exclaimed “I am so glad to see you!!!!”  She said the same back and figured out the shelter must still be ahead.  So I turned around again and high tailed across that darn, even higher creek.  Finally arrived at the shelter…sooooooo happy! 😀

Still pissed I have no stove. 😦  but we were happy to put on dry clothes and read the trail log!