5/7/07 Cheoah Bald
14 miles hiked
Today was fairly challenging, but at least it was cool most of the day. The last 1500′ foot climb up to here was very hot when exposed to the sun. The contrast between that and the Rhodo tunnels was a big one — it was very nice in the shade. I’m prepared for it to get cold up here tonight — we’ll see.
I wanted to camp up high so here I am. I could have gone on to the shelter, but this is much nicer. I can see the sunset from my site, even. There are some annoying bugs here, but I think they are day time ones and will disappear at dark (they did).
The views are great up here. There are two weekender types up here with me who seem like nice guys. No thruhikers at all, which seems odd to me.
I used the woodstove to make a fire so I could eat in peace and drive off the bugs. I wasn’t planning on having it going since I had chicken salad for dinner, but there is a surprising amount of kindling up here. The smoke did the trick.
The sunset was terrific!
