Date- Monday, 5/16/05
Start- Spring Mtn Shelter
Stop- Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles Travelled- 15.4
The longest day yet and I'm completely exhausted so my notes may be incoherent.
The trail had just a little bit of everything today. The day started rough. The temperature was cool and the terraine was relatively easy. The problem was my back and the pack. Seems I could go only 15-20 minutes before it would spasm and I would have to stop to work it out.
It started getting hot as I got to the big climb of the day. It seems lately that the general terraine has leveled but each day has a major climb. For some reason the back pains stopped during the climb.
Once I reached the top, hiking became easy as I walked through a parklike meadow. Here I saw a Turkey wallkin up the trail toward me. By the time I got my camera out he hopped off and disappeared into the brush.
The day ended with a beautiful but terrirfying ridge walk. The ridge was made up of large blocks of rock sort of like paving stones. The main problem was that it was only 2 - 4 feet wide and was thousands of feet up. Some of these paving stones were only a few inches thick and some were 2 feet or more in thickness so you are constantly stepping up or down. To add to the fun most were canted at angles of up to 45 degrees towards the abyss on either side.
At Jerry Cabin Shelter I met other hikers! I had basically been alone since Hot Springs and it was pleasant to have company. These are section hikers I had overtaken and I suspect I won't be seeing them again.
The maintainer at Jerry Cabin has a sense of humor. The shelter was equipped with a light switch, a mailbox, and a wheelchair acessible picnic table.
Posted by john at May 16, 2005 11:57 PM