Day 13, Monday, August 3, 2020

Brookshire Creek to Tellico River Bridge

Mile 155.3

I woke up at 5:30am to lightning, followed soon enough by thunder.

This is not how the weather usually works this time of year.

Thunderstorms usually wait till the afternoon.

It was resupply day and I was meeting Ralph at the Tellico River Bridge at noon. But I decided I’d rather walk in the rain than pack up in the rain, so I hustled and walked out of camp just before the rain started.

At least I knew then I wouldn’t be taking my shoes off for the four river fords I had to look forward to today.

(Remember, the BMTA doesn’t believe in bridges.)

The trail is just there, through the rhododendron on the other side of the creek. Plunge in!

I was just hoping the picnic tables at the meeting point would be covered, since I’d roll in a couple of hours early.

They weren’t.

Silly me for hoping.

But the picnic area had another amenity and I embraced it like the hiker trash I know I can be.

I locked myself in the pit toilet and changed into my dry clothes. Then I sat down on the floor, leaned against the wall, and made myself a cup of coffee.

I waited in that little room, dry and sheltered from the hordes of biting insects outside, until my husband arrived two hours later.

Then I went home for a much needed zero.

Two zeros, in fact.

One to dry out.

One to recover from my session in the roadside pit toilet.