April 7th - Day 34 - Kincora to Iron Mountain Shelter

Well its raining this morning. Between that and the real mattresses everyone is sleeping on, its a slow morning. I spend a bit rearranging my food supply. There is a bit of a debacle when Bob shuttle people out to Watauga lake. He said its his only shuttle today and I am not packed up. I though Dan had worked something out with him to go into town a bit later. So I end up standing in the rain with Bob looking dumbfounded about not being packed. Everyone heads out to the truck except for Dan, Turtle, Live, and I. Turtle is going to zero. Dan convinces Bob to going into town and make another run out to drop us off at Watauga. I feel bad about wasting his time. I think a lot of trail legends feel a pressure to perform. They love what they do, but often the trail community can take them for granted. I feel this way about Bob and Fresh Grounds, both of whom are amazing people, but often pressured by trail folk into being so. I imagine this can be stressful.

The three of us hike fifteen miles or so to Iron Mountain shelter. We run into Tree Frog and Squirrel getting water from the stream. This must be the water source for the shelter. We stop and chat, and fill up on water. I head up to the shelter and there are only 3 spaces left. Tree Frog and Squirrel have to tent out in the drizzle. I feel bad about this. I meet, Triton (AT'11), Steady(triple crown), and another hiker. Triton asks us about a Ridgerest he accidentally dropped a few miles back. I saw it but was in the zone a went right past it not even using any brain cells on it. I initially don't like Triton for his brashness and being from Staten Island. but, just like many other New Yorkers, I would eventually warm up to him. Blink eventually showed up toting the sleeping pad with Haiku, and peace was restored to the galaxy.