Birch Run Shelter

Mile 1,091.9
Elevation 1,800 feet 
Miles Hiked 7.4

Last night at Quarry Gap Shelters I got a rude awakening.  A very loud bang rang out.  I thought it was a gunshot, and worse even, I thought maybe Montana, who was sleeping in the other shelter, decided to end it all.  But then there was another bang.  I don’t think Montana could have shot himself twice, so I called out to him, “What the hell is that.”  Well, he was still alive, because he replied, “An acorn.”  It seems there is a huge tree right over the shelter, and it’s dropping acorns on the metal roof.  I’m familiar with the acorns falling.  In some parts of the trail, it’s like walking on marbles.  But these acorns falling on the aluminum roof sounded like gun blasts.  Thankfully, very few dropped during the night.  In the morning, Montana reminded me that he had warned me about the acorns, but I had no idea they would be so loud on the roof.

Montana was off by 7:30.  He was heading to a shelter about 14 miles away.  I looked up the information on the shelter.  It’s old and only holds four hikers.  While I could have easily made the hike, I decided against it.  I’m ahead of a schedule I had set before arriving on the trail, and I needed time for my feet to get better.

After breakfast I took a look at my feet.  The right foot had several small blisters on the ball of the foot.  While the left foot hurt, too, I could find no blisters.  The bottoms of both feet were swollen as well.  Before I left home, I bought special boot insoles.  Now I’m wondering if they are causing the problem.  I’ve never had this problem with my feet in 1,000 miles of hiking.

After taking care of the blisters, I got on my way.  While there were a couple of steep climbs, they weren’t very high.  Also, the trail was easy.  Long stretches were devoid of rocks and what rocks I did encounter were not that large.  I surprised myself by setting a 2.5 MPH pace.  About 2/3 the way to the next shelter, I came upon a mountain cabin.  It had a bench just off the trail and I couldn’t resist sitting down and enjoying the view of the cabin, trail and a small stream flowing by both.

After sitting for a half hour, I started hiking again.  Birch Run Shelter was only about an hour away.  I left the previous shelter at 9:00 AM, and I arrived at the Birch Run Shelter at 12:30 PM.

This is a nice shelter with a bunk setup for eight hikers; although in bad weather several more can fit.  No one was at the shelter, which is to be expected at such an early time of the day.  I fixed something to eat, setup my bunk and afterwards caught up on my journal.