Start: Bears Den Hostel
End: Dicks Dome shelter
Mileage: 18.3 (+0.8 for water and side trails)
I woke up and ate breakfast with one of my hosts. She then took me to Bears Den where she hiked with me for a little while before turning around. The morning that followed was very difficult.
I was on the trail by 7am and it started raining by 7:30am and rained off and on for the next 4-5 hours. This made the humidity even worse than it already was. The actual temperature was around 88-90, but the felt temperature was much higher. It was hard to get my breath and I was climbing a lot. The humidity also made the bugs worse. Thankfully, the rain stopped by 1pm or so and the weather shifted. I escaped the Rollercoster amd headed up into Sky Meadows where I got my first breath of non-humid air in two days.
On my way down to the shelter, I passed by a spring that had dried up. So a local PATC member had brought water to the trail from a nearby parking lot. She had a cold Gatorade and offered it to me. The trail magic was very much appreciated. I arrived at the shelter at 4:50pm. Shortly after, Twanda and Jingle Butt (NOBO thru hikers) arrived and we shared the shelter for the night. We had good conversations about OITNB. Another NOBO thru hiker (Paperclip) tented nearby.
Transcending Mountains 