Mile 401.9.
Elevation 3,196
Miles Hiked 8.8
I did break over 400 miles total since April! After the rain of the last few days, the weather was clear but cool with morning temperatures in the low 40’s. The only incident of note was a large snake just laying there on the trail. I waited a few minutes, and he finally slithered off.
The shelter was one of the nicer ones, which was built about ten years ago. Soon after I arrived, a southbound (SOBO) hiker came in. Anthony (not Tony) had come in from the north. He is a section hiker out for a week or so. We talked for awhile and as it was getting dark two SOBO thru-hikers came in. One of them had a dog named Ridge.
Ridge was a small dog about 50 or 60 pounds. He and his owner were going to complete their SOBO thru hike by Thanksgiving. What was so funny about Ridge is his owner would wrap him up in a down jacket at night and that’s how the dog kept warm as he slept. He was cute when he would sit and look at his owner until the owner would wrap him up. The owner told me he did a lot of research on dogs hiking the Appalachian trail. Apparently, larger dogs suffer more from hip and joint problems on the trail than dogs Ridge’s size. He also told me that he carries all of Ridge’s food. Ridge does not carry anything.
That night I was reminded why it’s not always a good idea to sleep in shelters. Anthony and one of the thru-hikers snored so loud, they probably woke up the bears in the woods. The only one unaffected was Ridge, who slept curled up in the down jacket. He snored, too.
