Walking in the Clouds

I should have known that it was going to be a bad day when the hotel we stayed at did not even have coffee. We schlepped our packs through town on the way to the trail but nothing was open for breakfast. So after a couple of oatmeal bars and some gas station coffee, we were on our way.

As we hiked up the mountain, we were treated to some great scenery. Like a mountain stream flowing over a large rock like a waterfall.

Large groves of rhododendron in full bloom right next to the trail. Because it had rained overnight, the woods had a just a different hue to it, the greens were much more brilliant, and even the moss and the lichen on the rocks looked better.

While hiking, Ed is usually in-front. From my point of view, this is to my benefit. If there is a difficult passage he gets to figure it out first or if there is a rattlesnake, he will find it first.

By the way, no rattlesnakes yet.

Ed does not like to stop on an up hill, he will keep pushing till he gets to the top, unless there is a photo opportunity. because of the wet this morning, the salamanders were out in full force.

While I was waiting for him, I could imagine what he was saying to the salamander. I think it would go something like this.

Ed’s voice: “ Work with me baby, work with me…. smile for the camera baby, smile for the camera…. you know the camera loves you”

I, on the other hand, just pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and took a quick snapshot.

Once we got to the top of the mountain, we were literally looking down on the clouds. It wasn’t raining, but we were wet. It was so humid condensation was forming on everything. At one point I had to take off my glasses to see better.

This continued on for most of the day, and after stumbling over wet rocks we made it to Wind Gap. Sitting in a parking lot by the trail, trying to figure out where to go, we could see a storm blowing in.

A quick Google search said there were 3 hotels in town, the first one was 300 yards up the road, the others were 2 miles the other way. We hustled up the road to find that the first one was closed down, made a quick call to the next one and headed that way.

We got to an underpass and waited but the storm got worse. We finally decided to just go for it.

As we scurried down the road, a local couple stopped to pick us up and gave us a ride to the hotel. Hot showers and a warm bed.