Mountaineer Falls Shelter to Mountain Harbour

On Wednesday morning, my legs were sore and tired from my minimal hiking the previous two days. The weather forecast was for low to mid 50s, and 70% chance of rain. The temperature was good because fat men warm up quicker, especially when we exercise, so it was nice to have some external help keeping my core temperature at a safe level. There was a bit of a sprinkle at the start of the hike, and it was actually nice. Rock Fish looked at his guidebook to see what the elevation profile looked like between the shelter and 19E, which was my final destination, and he said that it was all downhill except for one "little bump." It wasn't a little bump to me. It was a climb of over 1100 feet in just under 3 miles. To a guy that has done as much hiking as him, that is probably just a little bump. I don't have that much experience, and it kinda sucked. During the hike, the winds picked up to what seemed like hurricane force levels on the top of the "little bump" and I heard trees breaking, falling, and coming apart every few minutes. The closest widow maker fell about 20 yards behind me near the top of one of the climbs, and I was too tired to even turn around and look. On the back side of the little bump, I probably had to step over 50 blown down trees of varying degrees. Anything from small branches to huge pine trees were laying across the trail, which made me really happy because when I'm tired, hungry, cold, and wet, there's nothing I like more than slowing down to step over a bunch of trees. Based on my previous days of travel and the distance ahead of me in the morning, I estimated my arrival at 19E to be between 12:00 and 1:00. As it turned out, I arrived at 12:30. I'm good. The walk back to Mountain Harbour was a short 0.3 miles down the road, and my Subaru was there, anxiously awaiting my arrival. The route back home took me through Pisgah National Forest, and it was foggy and rainy with bad visibility. As it turned out, my hiking speed was only slightly slower than my speed on the trail.