4/17/13 - Day 2

Springer Mountain Shelter to Hawk Mountain Shelter
7.9 miles, 8.1 miles total

I'm gonna try and start my posts like this from now on, with starting and finishing points, and daily mileage and total mileage.

Nothing too exciting today. The hike was pretty much all flat or downhill. I finished right after lunch. I did see my first snake on the trail today. It was 4 ft long, 2 inches thick at the middle, and all black. I passed Long Creek Falls today, as well as the "Keyhole" tree, which is a tree with a hole large enough for a kid to sleep in.

One thing I did realize today is that when you are hiking and get in the zone, everything kinda fades out. Knee pain? Gone. Blisters? Not at this moment. 30 pound pack? Oh, I forgot I was wearing that. In the end, you're just walking and kinda forget everything else.

I stayed at Hawk Mountain Shelter tonight along with 7 others in the surrounding area. There was Midwest Mama, Rain Dancer, Sarah, Paul, Hank, Harry, and Soarfoot. Harry is a thru-hiker from Germany and is 87 YEARS OLD!!! He doesn't speak much English though. Oh, and Soarfoot is hiking for a few days to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his thru-hike. Paul is just getting away for one to two months. Sounds like a good plan to me!

The only bad thing about staying in shelters is the mice. There were a lot last night. I could hear them going through my bag and rustling around in the plastic bags. It made it pretty difficult to sleep.