Date: 2003-03-06
From: US 19 and 129 - neels gap (walasi-yi center)

To: blue mountain shelter
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: overcast clouds

day 5i wake up and take an additional shower. man, it felt like i was home again. showers at my leisure. i get ready, have pizza for breakfast, and go upstairs to the store. i buy myself some snacks, a data book (by the way, go with the wingnut instead), and ship back some of the weight that i've managed to unload. i go back out and weigh my pack. 38 lbs. baby! i know, it's not the best, but you better believe that it was better than before. i probably dropped close to 10 lbs. so i say bye to some of the fellas that are standing around, including a pair of brothers that i met last night, dez and drew. i say bye and start walking with my newly lightened pack and refreshed spirit.not to long before finishing the trail i was speaking with someone who asked me if there was a specific point on the trail where i realized that i could absolutely do this. "yes," that point was here. when i weighed my pack and started walking and felt that difference. from that point on i knew that i could do this, and that i could do it better the more i minimized my weight. i walked that day feeling great and it definitely was one of my favorites. not just because of the way i was feeling, but because of the great views, and all the great people that i managed to see throughout the day.after walking s few miles i meet "hairless joe." he's an old timer that has walked the trail who knows how many times and just kind of stays on it. this season he was gonna walk up to some place north, for some reason i'm thinking ny, but i may be wrong, for his sister's wedding. he's a really nice guy and i shoot it with him for a while while i eat an apple that i picked up from the hiker box back at the hostel. joe has a really cool labrador (i think) too. her name is "tipper" after al gore's wife. tipper's a really quiet, reserved, intelligent dog and compliments whimsical joe very well. after a few minutes dean rolls up. i met dean last night. we sat next to each other while gorging on our respective pizzas. dean, brendan, and i would become good friends after the next few days. i talk with dean for a while, take some photos of the view, and head on out.we later arrived at another great view and hairless joe points out blue mountain to me as well as tray mountain out in the distance. it was kind of nice being able to see where i'd be in the next couple of days. i had some lunch, some more left-over pizza naturally, and walked off. i pretty much walked the rest of the day solo, bumping into a few folks here and there, mainly dean, hairless joe, and another favorite that i had met the night before--journeyman. journeyman was a really nice older gentelman who's still very strong and really kicked some ass on the trail. he still carries an external frame which is a rarity, but not altogether extinct on the trail.i got ahead of these fellas for the rest of the day and after quite a number of miles i'm bending a turn when i start hearing some voices. this always brings a smile to your face after having walked solo for some time. it's low gap shelter and that means i've already walked something like 11 miles. i get to the shelter and who should i see? it's the yellow submarine and poptart. i hadn't seen these fellas for a few days now and they just so happen to have been inquiring about me to poptart. so i greet lion cub, pathfinder, rider and poptart. we start shooting it for a while and they tell me that they're gonna push on a little further. how much further? oh, they're aiming for blue mountain shelter a whopping 7 miles north if possible. well i feel great and i wouldn't mind the challenge of an 18 mile day at this point so i agree to roll. the guys give me a few minutes to rest a little, eat, stretch and get some water. right before i'm about to leave journeyman and dean show up. they hear my decision to keep going and i can tell they're a little bewildered. i say bye to these guys and head on out.oh, we had a great time on that walk. one of the biggest reasons i decided to go with these guys was to get to know them better. i really liked them from start and i didn't wanna let them slip away that easily. at one point while walking rider and pathfinder are busting beats. you know like the hip-hop beats that people make with their mouths. and for some reason it sounds to me like that chilis barbacue rib commercial with nsync. so out of nowhere while they're spillin' their beats, i bust out with "chiliiis!" and everybody just busts out laughing. we just couldn't stop and after everything calms down, lion cub who's leading the pack busts out with a "with barbacue sauce!" in this low, barry-white monotone voice. oh, shit, the laughter just kept on going. it was great. i knew that today just had the makings of another great day written all over it.we walked and walked and although the conversation was great, towards the last few miles we were all pretty well worn down and the sun was moving towards a set. shortly before making it to the shelter, however, our spirits got livened a little when we ran into "flatlander" and "mama lipton." two other of my favorites. i didn't know them, but the sub and poptart did and we talked for a while with them. they're a great older couple who i'd continuously run into until after hot springs, nc.we made it to the shelter shortly before the set, poptart and myself squeeze into an already sardine-packed shelter. the sub is gonna pitch their yellow 2-man tent that they all squeeze into, hence the "yellow submarine." we all meet up by the fire pit and get a fire going and have dinner together. the sub has a great spread going on seeing as how they're gonna hit helen at unicoi gap the next day and do some resupply and celebrate cub's birthday, so they offered up all kinds of goodies to poptart and myself. they hooked up some mashed potatoes that just got the job done. we talked some more, laughed some more, and had a good time. poptart concluded that a bigger pot that she could stick her face into and lick would be better suited for the trail and i concluded that the trail is nice.