Miles: 14.2; Elevation gained: 2,700 ft

This was a tough, memorable day. We had 16 miles planned which seemed doable, but, well, you can’t plan for everything on the trail. All along the ridge line, trees were blown over the path, sometimes forcing us to take packs off, pass them over or under the tree(s), crawl under or over, reunite with packs, and move on. Not to mention pretty constant elevation changes, and rain again into the bargain.

I will cut to the chase: we wanted to end up at Battel Shelter, on the north side of Lincoln Gap. But as dusk descended, we were still high up on the ridge on the south side and knew we wouldn’t make the roughly 700 ft climb up the north side. We hiked the next mile looking for acceptable tent sites to no avail, and made a game time call to try to make it to four walls and a roof. We got signal up on a ledge and found the Warren Falls Inn which had one room left. We called another one-man taxi service and asked for a pick up in the gap.

We started the descent and all hell broke loose with thunder, lightning and sheets of water. That plunged us into complete darkness, and we strapped head lamps on to pick our way down. It was extremely dicey, as the rain turned the trail into a ripping little stream and it became impossible to see the white blazes of the LT because the descent was mostly rock face. There were plenty of ledges and drop offs, so it was critical to stay on the trail. You know – one wrong step and all that..

In any case, we obviously made it, and the driver was graciously waiting despite our tardy splat onto the road. At the Inn they had towels in hand and beer in the fridge, examples of those comforts/amenities that grow twice their normal size on the appreciation scale when you come off the trail, especially on a night like this. There is nothing worse than pitching a tent in rain in the dark, so I feel like we lucked out.