Sunday 17 April 2016
The next morning our neighbour greets us in German in reaction to hearing us speaking Afrikaans. His trail name is Ronan. We talk about the branch falling last night. He tells us about widow makers: a very real factor to keep in mind when selecting a camp spot in order to be safe. When we comment on the difficulty of organising an effective bear cable substitute to stop bears and vermin, he recalls how they had problems with mice chewing through the crates in which the food was kept in Iraq. While we pack up and eat breakfast, he checks on the guy in the hammock that has been down and out since 4 o’ clock yesterday afternoon. As he says, it won’t be a problem to leave him to the bears if he is dead, but they would just like to know. The guy in the hammock gets up quickly and sets off on the trail. Pretty soon we are almost the only ones in the camping ground save for another chap, John from Maryland, who does not seem to be leaving today. We have to do some exhausting climbing up the rest of the mountain, and this seems to be the pattern for the first part of the day. It must have been a tough 3 miles to the shelter for Alistair yesterday. The Rhododendrons grow avidly here and create more shade. For lunch we spread the tarp near the White Oak Stamp and have a leisurely break, staring at the blue sky peering through the bare branches. But despite the break we are tired by the time we have our afternoon break. We hike another mile and are the first ones to arrive at the Standing Indian Mountain shelter. Eventually others arrive: first some young fit guys which basically completed the route we did today and yesterday in one session. Much later the last guy remaining in the camp, John, pitches and also two young girls: one from Tennessee and Phoebe from LA who seems to be ready for more hiking and who introduces herself as Slam! Slam is 19 and has completed the PCT and another long distance route. She started on the PCT when she was 15, missed quite a bit of school and had some trouble readjusting to regular school routine when she got back. We spend a bit of time chatting about mountains, South Africa and long hiking trails. And why people do it. Seems that there are as many reasons as there are hikers.
Some reasons bring tears to the eyes.