I had a great time starting with potential thru-hikers, a new experience for me. I started around noon on the 9th. I was supposed to start hiking closer to 9am, but I locked my stupid keys in the car (something I have not done [...]]]> Now I’ve hiked from Springer to Southern Mass.

I had a great time starting with potential thru-hikers, a new experience for me. I started around noon on the 9th. I was supposed to start hiking closer to 9am, but I locked my stupid keys in the car (something I have not done in at least 15 years) with my gear inside at about 6am, and I had to wait for a locksmith from Robbinsville before I could get my shuttle and get going.

Made it to Justus Creek (and it had gotten darn hot that day) and shared the area with a lovely couple who had already thrown a bear line. They said they were newish backpackers, but they seemed pretty together to me. (I *can* throw a bear line. I’m pretty decent at it too, but it was nearly dark, and there usually is not a good spot for everyone to use a different one.) Spent a comfy night in the hammock.

The next day, I hiked to Slaughter Creek Campsite and spent another great night in the hammock, though I did have to get up at around 2am to pull the tarp over due to light rain. Sadly, Blood Mtn. was fogged in for my trip over the top. If I’d known how easy the trip up there was, I would have camped up there the night before. The shelter is as bad as everyone on says, but I’m sure I could have found somewhere to sleep outside of it. I can’t believe people take the Freeman Trail around Blood without any rough weather. It looks like it would be wonderful on a clear day.

Rolled into Neel Gap early and shared a cabin with a nice couple from NH. They had stayed at Stover Creek their first night and cooked bacon for breakfast and attracted a bear. Good story, and they got the bear thing out of the way early, ha ha. There was a caretaker of sorts at the house named Storyteller, and boy was he. I think I got going by 8am or so, which is pretty stellar for me.

The next day I hiked on to Blue Mountain Shelter, stopping for lunch on top of Wildcat Mtn. Gorgeous but cold. Ditto Blue Mtn. Shelter. Slept in the shelter, if you could call it sleep, as I thought I’d be too cold in the hammock. Dumb move. I should have just pitched the hammock’s tarp and slept on the ground — less wind. I had a lot of company there complaining about the wind — everyone in the shelter, really. It was *cold* in there.

I hiked into Unicoi, then Cloud 9 slacked me to Dick’s Creek Gap, and I took a zero at their place. Met literally dozens of people, some of whom I’d wind up camping and sometimes lunching with on the rest of the trip. Fran and Laura were great and the bunks were the best I’ve ever experienced in a hostel. The smoked trout was, of course, excellent. It’s in contention for my favorite hostel on the trail.

The next day, many of us wound up at Standing Indian and it was another cold night, but I battened down the tarp and stayed out of the shelter. I slept on the ground, using the hammock’s tarp as a, well, tarp. I added a space blanket and I did just fine. I saw Yak stuff his hammock’s undercover full of leaves, and I made a pile under my groundcloth. Worked pretty well, I think.

Next day was up and over Albert Mountain, awesome view from the tower. Again, I cannot believe people by-pass it in good weather. The climb is almost comic in it’s verticality and rockiness, but it’s short. Camped at Big Spring with many of the same folks from Cloud 9.

Did an easy 9 miles to Franklin and went in for the night with Buzzard and Fred, not on a room, we just all went in to town together. I hate sharing hotel rooms. I can manage hostels because the etiquette is all very clear. Sharing a hotel room, not so much.

Saw many others there — reported that on the sightings thread. Ron Haven was terrific and the room was clean and nice. Great deal at $35.

Headed out the next day to Cold Spring Shelter. It was way too hot in the afternoon, and I thought the climb up Wayah would never end. Over all though, it was a nice day. I had a great and relaxing lunch at the new Wayah Shelter. I packed in a beer and had that, which was nice. I also had hot tea with milk. On I went, and man it was hot, sunny and lacking shade.

That night at Cold Spring, it was back to the hammock, and like a moron, I missed the good camping BEYOND the shelter. Pitched on a slope and wound up moving about 9pm when I realized how hard it was to get back down that slope or get in and out of the hammock while sliding down the hill. Got a good bit of rain and stayed dry. Started off in rain that kept up quite a while, but it was not unpleasant. After the previous day of hot sun, the 50′ and raining was…kind of invigorating.

Got to the NOC around 1pm on the 19th and had lunch with McDee and Yak. I was so wiped out from doing the 11.5 miles on a couple of handfuls of gorp that even the beer made me more rational and understandable. It was one of those things where you don’t realize how tired, hungry and thirsty you are until you sit down, drink and eat. Wesser (which was not too bad of a climb, even in the rain) was totally in the fog, but I got a lovely view from the Jump-Off, so all was not lost. The descent did seem to last forever, but except for that, the approach to town reminded me of Pearisburg and Angel’s Rest, though this was more dramatic.

The weather at the NOC could not have been more perfect. Blue skies, fluffy clouds and warm (not hot!) sun.

This was a very easy hike for me, but very hard for the NOBOs. I’m going to buy a shower here and move along — everything here is expensive. I’ll get lunch on the road, and if I’m too tired to drive all the way home, I’ll at least get some [...]]]> 8.1 miles hiked.

This was a very easy hike for me, but very hard for the NOBOs. I’m going to buy a shower here and move along — everything here is expensive. I’ll get lunch on the road, and if I’m too tired to drive all the way home, I’ll at least get some miles in before I get a room.

—

It took 8 hours to drive home and that was with *very* minimal stops. Man, that was long.

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. [...]]]> 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!

I hiked in here starting about 2:45 or so and arrived at 5:15. It was a long climb and it’s hot again.

Hikers here are Pierre, Audrey (Pippi), Pittsburgh and Back-Track. I’ve pitched my tent and the site is a bit tilty. I will probably [...]]]> 5.6 miles hiked SOBO from Fontana Dam

I hiked in here starting about 2:45 or so and arrived at 5:15. It was a long climb and it’s hot again.

Hikers here are Pierre, Audrey (Pippi), Pittsburgh and Back-Track. I’ve pitched my tent and the site is a bit tilty. I will probably regret this at about 2am. It’s OK now, but a slanty shanty nonetheless.

My shuttler today, Jeff Hoch, was a really nice guy and I’m a little sorry I didn’t stay with them at some point (Hike Inn), but oh well. Jeff claims my cell will work at Yellow Creek Gap and I’ll be there in the morning. It will be a novelty to have that thing be anything but useless on this trip.

The 15 miles tomorrow look tought, but I do have all day to do it. There’s a lot of up and down — probably 3000 feet of climbing in all of those.

It was rain or dense fog most of the day today, but at least it wasn’t hot!

I heard country music and smelled BBQ and brats all the way down into town. The music fest is at the campgound, and it’s right on the French Broad river.

Instead of staying here, I’m going to [...]]]> 16.3 miles hiked

It was rain or dense fog most of the day today, but at least it wasn’t hot!

I heard country music and smelled BBQ and brats all the way down into town. The music fest is at the campgound, and it’s right on the French Broad river.

Instead of staying here, I’m going to drive to the Maggie Valley and stay in a Ramada with internet and laundry. I really need that anonymous hotel sort of experience, and I want some Hardee’s. Hot Springs is cute, but it doesn’t have any of those things!

-later-

The room as a king bed and a cute balcony over a creek. I can wash clothes and dry out my gear here, yay!. Off to get that giant burger now!

They have cabins and a lodge for hikers, but she didn’t really offer a cabin to me. I guess she assumed I wanted cheap. As that kind of accomodations go, the place is really nice. The setting is pretty too. There’s one other hiker (female) in the lodge with [...]]]> 16.7 miles hiked

They have cabins and a lodge for hikers, but she didn’t really offer a cabin to me. I guess she assumed I wanted cheap. As that kind of accomodations go, the place is really nice. The setting is pretty too. There’s one other hiker (female) in the lodge with me, but she’s so unfriendly that she’s almost hostile. I’ve never encountered such an anti-social backpacker before. I could use some girly chit-chat time, but she’s clearly not interested.

She’s trying to get a ride somewhere, and when she said maybe she’d just hitch, the proprietress said not to. She repeated herself — don’t hitchhike around here. Yikes.

So, last night (at the shelter), I was awoken by a chewing/gnawing sound. I’m not sure if it was a mouse or something larger, but it sounded like it was eating hiker gear. It wasn’t, thank god. It must have been eating the shelter!

The trail today was a good deal harder than it looked on the profile. They had relocated a couple of miles to go down a rocky and very narrow ridgeline. There were a lot of views, but it was all rock scrambles, one hand over hand climb.

The 2007 AT Companion also lists two water sources that are no longer ON the trail since the relo to that ridge. One looks like it’s dry (and it was supposed to be a reliable source), and the other is just not on the AT any more. I think one or both must be on the old A.T. which is marked blue and is the bad weather by-pass.

I’d like to make Hot Springs tomorrow though there is really no advantage to that. There’s a music festival this weekend and the whole place will be jammed full of people. I might hike *almost* to Hot Springs and come in on Sunday morning.

I think the other lady here managed to arrange whatever she’s trying to do. In fact, I think she’s leaving the trail, so maybe she’s depressed about that. Either that or she hated me on sight.

Anyway, I’m going back to reading Backwoodsman magazine which is pretty interesting if badly edited. It’s very informationally dense. I might subscribe to it — I’ve certainly seen nothing else like it.

I got rained on today and wound up skipping lunch. When I got here, it was pouring and I was very hungry so here I am at 11.2 miles for today.

The shelter is pretty full: C-Shot, Big Brother, Tree Work, Shadow, Me and one more are in there [...]]]> 11.2 miles south of Sam’s Gap

I got rained on today and wound up skipping lunch. When I got here, it was pouring and I was very hungry so here I am at 11.2 miles for today.

The shelter is pretty full: C-Shot, Big Brother, Tree Work, Shadow, Me and one more are in there shelter and Rain Check and two others are tenting. I wish I were better at remembering names, and it just gets embarrassing to ask repeatedly.

The shuttle to Sam’s Gap was a total rip-off (it seemed high at the time, but now that I’ve asked others, I’ve found that it was ludicrously high). Dan at Bluff Mountain has shuttled me before and the price was reasonable, so I didn’t shop around. When we got to Sam’s Gap in 40 minutes though, I really wondered. I’m glad I’m done with Hot Springs. Everything there is expensive!

There were two graves on the trail today, and as I was coming down into Devil Fork Gap, I head what sounded like one very pissed off donkey. With the fog and the graves it was really surreal.

As it happens, nearly everything here is full. Certainly, the place I had hope to stay was (The Alpine Court). I stayed at [...]]]> I couldn’t reach anyone on the pay phone at Uncle Johnny’s and my cell didn’t work anywhere. The whole town of Hot Springs is a cell dead zone for Cingular.

As it happens, nearly everything here is full. Certainly, the place I had hope to stay was (The Alpine Court). I stayed at the Sunnybank Inn last year, but he’s full this time. I went down to the Duckett House and it’s a nice room, but expensive. I’m the only indoor guest. The bunkhouse has one guy in it, but it’s very hot in there, and I just can’t deal with that today. There’s no A/C in here, but the ceiling fan and the ventilation seems to be enough to keep it from being hot. Make no mistake — I’d like it to be cooler, but I will be able to sleep in here.

Man, it was hot today. I started out at 8:30am (this is about the best I ever do in the morning), and I finished at 5pm, but I still used up 6 liters of water.

This morning it was OK. Sadly, it did not get below 60′ last [...]]]> 16.9 miles hiked from Bald Mountain Shelter

Man, it was hot today. I started out at 8:30am (this is about the best I ever do in the morning), and I finished at 5pm, but I still used up 6 liters of water.

This morning it was OK. Sadly, it did not get below 60′ last night, even at 5500′

The hike today was not terribly challenging, but neither was it easy. I’m jumping down to Hot Springs now. Next, I’ll hike SOBO from Sam’s Gap to there.