Blue to Tray Mountain

This morning I watched the sun rise at Blue Mountain Shelter. It was really windy and cold this morning, but very pretty. We had talked about the sunrise having potential to be really nice last night, so I told Bluto to wake me. Although he came over to wake me, I was already up, not having slept very well. When we got to the shelter yesterday, we met a weekend hiker that was here with his dog and offered to bring any trash we had out with him. Another half dressed endurance hiker came blasting through and pushed on around 5pm. We had our things hung all around to try to dry things out. I was afraid that my any of the three pieces of my tent might become unattached a blow away. I made jokes that it would be the fastest anyone would see me in the mountains.

Happy Easter! I had lunch on top of Rocky Mountain. I tried a Cliff energy shot (apple pie flavor) and it tasted absolutely terrible, but I have to admit I busted it up Rocky Mountain (1,000 feet elevation over a little over a mile). It may have all been in my head, but at least that tactic worked then! I was able to borrow Bluto's cell phone on top of Tray Mountain for a minute and called Mom's house to say Happy Easter to everyone. It was great to hear everyone's voice. I wish I could have talked longer to everyone or made more calls, but I only got one phone call, as the saying goes!

Karma, Moonlight, Recon, Queen Becky and Bluto all pushed on further today, but I had that promise to keep to my feet and I stayed at Tray Mountain, knowing it was supposed to start raining in the early morning, I am setting up my bed in a shelter for the first time. I am taking my last of the three Ambien I brought along with me and hopefully will get a good nights sleep. I've been having trouble in the regard, either initially falling asleep or staying asleep all night. I wake a lot tossing and turning, not being comfortable or my muscles jerking, hands and arms asleep, etc. In the shelter with me is AT73 and Windmill (both from southern Illinois), Tim the Turtle (near Bland, Virginia), and Toubob (Ohio). AT73 has thru hiked before a few times actually and has brought along his friend Windmill this time. AT73, or Lauren is a wealth of knowledge and remembers most of the route by memory and warns about the next big hill, or whatever maybe in store. He strikes me as the classic stoic wise man. Windmill is hilarious, charismatic and great to talk to also. These two guys are incredible. They are in amazing shape and put the likes of me and my fitness to shame! Tim the Turtle has section hiked most of the trail and also has that sincere kindness that radiates from most people I've met so far.