August 3

We started very early - well OK we started the car early at 7am. It is a 3 hour drive to Williamstown so at 10am we arrived at the trail head.

Some years it is the flowers that peak your interest. This year it is the fungi. They are gorgeous -- and a little freaky. Some are huge with bright red and orange caps. Come are small alien growths reaching out of the ground. The strangest ones were orange-red balls that were covered in slime. Yuck. The best variety of fungi was before the LT started. It was on the Pine Cobble Trail as we slogged up the hill.

I've been up this particular hill several times before, but never for the start of the LT. Joel walked up this section with us. We were going to eat at the Pine Cobble overlook, but when we got there, there were no views. It was too cloudy. So we stopped about a 1/2 mile farther up the trail to eat. Joel shared his smoked trout with Beth and we shared our cheddar cheese. I think Beth got the better deal.

The sprinkles started at the end of our meal and Joel figured it was time to leave. Beth and I were on our own.

Off into the woods we hiked -- slowly. Beth doesn't like to hike fast and took lots of breaks. I thought I knew where we were most of the time but I was thrown off by a grassy jeep trail. It was not marked on the map. The guide book described the spur for the shelter as being just .2 miles from a woods road. But it was obviously not this one, and we became a little confused. I should stick to reading the contours they seem to be more accurate than the side trails and streams. BTW there are TONS of streams everywhere. And mud. Lots of mud to wade through, but luckily most have stepping stones to help out.

We made it to Seth Warner Shelter after 3pm. Commander-in-Chief, who had passed us earlier on the trail, was set up in the shelter. Beth saw the big empty shelter and decided she was sleeping there tonight. I set up the tent, because the idea of a shelter wasn't too appealing. I knew it would fill up - and it did. Lots of AT thru hikers and sections hikers and one thru-hiker dog "Brown Dog." The most interesting thing was - out of 6 people staying in the shelter 5 of them were women. The women's AT journals that I've read seem to indicate that there are few women on the trail.

I really didn't want to make my spaghetti sauce separately so I tried to just add it to the angle hair pasta. It really didn't work. Ahh well if I want pasta sauce, I'll have to do it right next time.

Beth kicked me off her pad in the shelter at about 8pm. So I went through the rain into my tent. Unfortunately my neighbors were talking up a storm. I finally fell asleep at around 10pm.