woods hole shelter

so another day of rain. at least the ups and downs weren't as severe as yesterday. the trail was extremely muddy when I left the gang at gooch mtn shelter at 9 am. it rained and drizzled all day. today I took a couple of pictures on top of a few peaks that probably have nice views when it's not rainy and foggy. saw several burnt out areas with probably only a year or two of regrowth - everything was black except for the small new trees ground cover. saw several fresh signs of bear today as I hiked alone. good that I didn't see the bear responsible. feet are a little sore but knees are ok. I take off my shoes whenever I can and as early as possible when making camp. also using gold bond powder on them nightly. I hiked about 13 miles and decided to call it quits around 4 pm here. neels gap is only about 4 miles away but I have to pass over blood mountain which is straight up about 1000 feet and it's mostly rocky. so I'll wait. but rumor has it that it might snow quite a bit tonight or tomorrow which will make it difficult. we'll see. here at the shelter tonight with charles and jessica - who I met at the shelter last night. they arrived about an hour after I got here. misting heavily - everything is wet. hopfully the shelter mice aren't active tonight. but i'm sure they will be due to all the trash laying around the site here. they don't pose a threat, just scurry about looking for food. so every now and then they run over your sleeping bag. ugh.
laters
l

-- Post from the trail