Good friend of the podcast, Liz, is guest-writing blog posts for us this week, about her experience on the Foothills Trail. Check back each day for more stories from Liz!
Day 5 was not supposed to be a rain day. Yet it was raining as we awoke at 6am. It was raining as we ate our breakfast. It was raining while we packed our stuff and hoisted our bags onto our backs again. It rained on us when we found cell service and asked for an update from the folks at home. When was this rain that was not supposed to happen going to quit? Weather is a fickle beast. The rain would continue for most of the day with a short break in the afternoon. Our plan to keep our feet dry was a bust, our plan to hike Heartbreak Ridge in the dry was gone, the views from Lake Jocassee were not visible. With sloshy feet, we carried on. We climbed Heartbreak ridge, pausing only to look at the benches, not sit in them, there wasn’t a view today. We carried on to Laurel Valley Falls, pausing to look at the magnitude of the waterfall then continuing onto the campsite for lunch.
We ate our cold lunch in the cold rain. Our raincoats were nothing more than a formality at this point, we were soaked to the bone, our fingers were pruny. If I could make one request to the Foothills Trail conservancy, it would be to build shelters. I will help you build them. There was nothing else to do but walk and walk we did. We walked for 19 miles with only 3 hours of relief from the rain after lunch. We passed Laurel Valley parking in high spirits; we had made it so far. There we passed a hiker who was waiting for pick up and both wondered if he was waiting on the godfather. As we neared Chimneytop, and right as or coats had dried out, the rain began again in earnest. Setting up a tent in the rain is never something I wanted to know how to do, but now I can say it is possible. We took stock of the trees around our campsite, were they all healthy? We were expecting high winds that night and did not want to be in the reach of a widow maker. The tent up, the fly on, my hiking partner got to filtering water as I cooked our last hot meal; a thanksgiving dinner concoction made with mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey jerky. We ate dinner in the rain. Tired of being wet, we crawled into the relative dryness of our sleeping clothes and bags just as the downpours began.
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