Rain and Hail

A mile later as I was getting water out of a stream, it started to pour with lightning and thunder.  That's when I discovered my rain poncho wasn't long enough on the back to cover my pack and too long in the front, as I stepped on it climbing uphill.

Soon it started to hail marble sized hail mixed with the rain and a howling wind.  I got soaked fooling around with the poncho taking it on and off trying to cover my pack.  I couldn't button the sides and my camera and phone were getting wet.  Next the hail became golfball sized.  I ate a lot of it, carefull not to pick it up off the poisen ivy lining the path.  When I reached Blood Mountain shelter, a two room pioneer rock and mortar building, I decided this was far enough.  It was dropping lightning bolts and we've already lectured Tom Tom about being on ridges in lightning storms.

I called my wife, Jill, to check in and see if she heard from Jonathan.  It seemed that when he stopped at Neel's Gap, he got some advice on gear and purchased $700 worth of lighter gear.  There would be a big box of his old stuff there for me to pickup.

I changed out of all my wet clothes and put on my cotton jeans, a big camping NO-NO.  Cotton takes forever to dryout, but I wasn't really going for a long distance and the other clothes is so expensive.  All my T-shirts were also cotton.

I cooked on my sterno and spent the night alone in the glassless windows and doorless breezeway shelter, laying on my backpack and the shelter's log book.  I was trying to minimize my contact with the cold cement floor.  It was one of those cold nights that lasted forever.  My only blanket was my poncho.  I took my wet shoes and socks off and tryed to keep my heels ontop of my flip flops.

No I wasn't really asleep, the camera was on a timer.

I think a bat flying around woke me up several times along with the lack of comfort.  In the morning, I heated up some water to warm up and called Jill to see if she heard about Tom Tom.