Mile 739.3
Elevation 1,850
Miles Hiked 11.8
I left the Howard Johnson Express at 9:00 AM in a light drizzle. It was supposed to rain all day, but it actually stopped a half hour later. The temperature was in the high 50’s and cloudy, which made for good hiking. Too bad Creak decided to spend another day at the motel, because he would really like this hiking weather.
I stopped at the Fullhardt Knob Shelter for lunch at noon. No one else was there, which was unusual. After lunch, I moved on. I hiked pretty fast and made good progress. About 3:15 PM I arrived at the Wilson Creek Shelter. Two other hikers were there and about to leave.
The two hikers had found a dog at the shelter and we’re trying to get it to go with them, so they could hand it off to a animal shelter in the next town. The dog wouldn’t leave the shelter, so the hikers then called animal control. The end story is a plan was formed by animal control to hike up to the shelter the next day to get the dog.
At this point, I was the only one who was planning to stay at the shelter for the night. I laid out my sleeping bag to claim a spot, and within 15 minutes the two hikers with the dog decided to stay because the rain was coming down heavier. Now there are three in the shelter. Another hiker came in and behind him by 10 minutes were 4 more hikers. The shelter is designed to sleep six hikers but now we have eight. Not a good situation. And the rain is supposed to continue all night and apparently so is one of the motor mouth hikers who shoe horned himself into the shelter. Where’s the earplugs?
