Day 71

Weather:
Rain in the morning

Today's Hike:
Bailey's Gap Shelter to Laurel Creek Shelter - 14.6 miles

I understand that weather forecasters gave a hard job; they are literally trying to predict the future. However, if you have no psychic abilities then predicting what's going to happen 24 hours from now and televising it to a large population of people should be illegal. It's like false advertising. What the weather person should do is stand next to a live radar picture with their mouth shut and just let the audience stare at it. We have just as much chance of understanding what the day will be like as they do. Needless to say our "clear skies for the next four days" forecast is wrong as of day 2 starting at 6am when I awoke to the pitter patter of tiny rain drops on the fly of the tent. This also means that I began my morning by bolting out of the tent like a racehorse to gather the clothes that had been hanging to dry. Although I have reached a point of being OK with whatever the weather does. What gets aggravating is hearing all the predictions (which of course tend to be better then reality) and never having any of them turn out right. I’d rather not be told anything and just deals with whatever comes. Its better to not have expectations.

After a drizzly, wet, and cold day the sun finally poked it's head out around 4pm. We stopped at War Spur Shelter to dry out the tent for about an hour the hiked 5.8 miles to Laurel Creek Shelter where we are tenting for the night. Following suit with the start of the day, a thunderstorm rolled in just as Muster finished cooking us a wonderful dinner of grilled bean burritos. Man, those weather reports are spot on aren't they!?!