Date: 2003-03-25
From: Springer Moutain

To: Standing Indian
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

WHITE BLAZE, DAY 1, MAR 24, MY 60th BIRTHDAY,Spent the nite at a campsite on top of Springer Mt. Watched a beautiful sunset. We met a young couple from Montgomery Alabama. They are both lawyers. We also met a guy from Montana and shared a campfire. We broke camp and started our great adventure at 8:30 AM . Met lots of hikers through the day.One man in his 70's named Dan was promptly renamed Dangerous Dan by my brother Paul whose trail name is Fourplay because he can only play for four days.We traded positions with an outward bound group at least 5 times.They were pushing one boy who really wanted to be someplace else.When we arrived at Hawk Mt. Shelter there were tents and hikers everywhere. We estimated at least 40 but another 15 came in after dark.Paul is having trouble with his water filter and is ot a happy camper. We went to bed at 8:00 PM I couldn't have had a better birthday.                                    WHITE BLAZE, DAY 2 WARM DAY PARTLY CLOUDYStayed at old shelter at Gooch Gap with Moo and 42(the lawyers) Had a small fire, did not set up the tent. A really hard day with a couple of long hard climbs:(............About 3:00 am a parliment of owls began a meeting in the woods and filled the night with hooting sounds and about 4:00am we heard the howling of wolfs( confirmed by locals)..........WILD NIGHT....WHITE BLAZE DAY 3Cooler today nice hiking, long steep climbs...........Poor Paul's blisters getting worse:(..........Planned to camp at Slaughter Gap but oppted for woods hole...about one mile short of our goal............turned out that most of the people we had been hiking with ended up here..........a really nice shelter, not many tent sites.about 16 of us here. Had a camp fire and told jokes and had a fun night..............WHITE BLAZE DAY 4 COOLER TODAYHad an easy hike to Blood Mt. but then we missed a blaze, ended up off the trail, Paul kept going, but we went back and located the trail..............we finally met up at Neals Gap, hear Paul's side of the story...........Met Dad at the Gap and spent the night at R Ranch in the RV.........Mom cooked so much we could hardly move, but oh so good:)..........Showered and did laundry........oh so good:)........Made some phone calls back home....WHITE BLAZE DAY 5Started cool and damp, got really foggy at dark, camped in the tent near Low Gap Shelter beside Moo and 42.........Peter Pan, Kiwi,Coyotte, Josh, Michelle, Dreamwalker and Mike were in the shelter......set up tarp to cook under because we expected rain...........we were awakened around 6:15am by Peter Pan brushing 2" of snow off our tent, he said "Not to worry, Seneca Lou it is just Peter Pan, your tent is about to cave in with all the snow"..........We looked outside to the sight of a beautiful winter wonderland:)...........made a snowman and threw a couple of snowballs:)WHITE BLAZE DAY 6Hiked in the snow to Blue Mt shelter......Many guys got off the trail and hitched to Helen to get out of the Cold............Not us.......We stayed in the shelter with Moo, 42, Josh, Michelle, Hank, Brian, and Alex............Coldest night yet all our clothes on, still cold in sleeping bag, water bottles froze....went down to 19 degrees and very windy........WHITE BLAZE DAY 7Left Blue Mt Shelter at 9:45am, got to Tray Mt at 6:15pm...hard hike out of Unicoi Gap.......spectacular views from Tray Mt..............most of the regulars have gone ahead to the next shelter, another 6 miles..........Hank Michelle and Josh hitched to Hiawassee to waarm up.........two guys from Ohio are here tonight, no one is sleeping in the shelter, nice piped spring................bedded down by 8:00pm, long hike tomorrow..........WHITE BLAZE 8April Fools Day:)........Had a good night's sleep cold 32 degrees in the am.........packed up early, left camp at 7:20, no breaksfast, snacked on the trail with ceral bars.........snow had disappeared by late afternoon.........great weather for hiking.........long 10.5 day with one long climb, got to Dick's Gap around 5:00pm, hitched a ride to the Blueberry Patch Hostel, a very rustic but neat place...............they did our laundry, gave us breakfast, nice hot showers, took us back to the trail head...............WHITE BLAXE DAY 9A very hard earned 6.6 miles took us to a campsite along the trail, with a spring near by.....broke a limb off the tree trying to Bear bag our tree(the Bear Bag Olympics)...................we had a campfire and slept well:)..........Our first night all alone in the woodsWHITE BLAZE DAY 10A 91/2 hr hike to Standing Indian Shelter with some killer climbs!!!! Crossed into N.C. about 10:00am and took pictures of knareled oak at Bly Gap, met a Gal named Cindy, also known as Mrs. Gorp at Deep Gap, her journals are on line and I remembered reading them, she had to quit the trail last year beacuse of the death of her Mother........Spent the night in the shelter with her ...no one else here..........Took a picture of the west side of Standing Indian Mt at sunset for friend, Daryl...........WHITE BLAZE DAY 11Good thing I took a picture of SI MT, last night because thismorning it is socked in with fog..........rain is predicted for the afternoon and the weekend.....We hiked down to Carter Gap............nicest part of the trail so far....mostly down hill with beautiful tunnels of Rhododendran and all kinds of mosses and fungi.....beautiful shades of green.................BLACK FLIES are Bad.............WE HAVE LOTS OF BITES:(..............So far it looks like we are one day behind schedule.........Met Papa Bear this am and two membeers of the blue blazers, named Pirate and Wee Willie, Prince of Wales.............Pirate has lived on the trail for 13 years...........Wee Willee is writting a book on dragons......strange guys................We met Peeps at this shelter and moved in with him, he is from DC area........later we were joined by The Healer,Moo, 42 in the shelter..........in tents were, Josh Michelle, Trucker, Joe, Bruce.....................caught up on everyone's experiences in Hiawassee.............8:00pm rainingWHITE BLAZE 12Rained hard off and on all night, glad we were in the shelter:).............sorry for the ones in the wet tents........hung out until 9:40, waiting for the rain to quit...........left ccamp in full rain gear..........about a half hour later, it cleared up and turned out to be a sunny beautiful day............nice hike until Albert Mt. ...a really tough hands on climb up the rock face .2 mile in 1/2 hr to the top..........fire tower on top with 360 deg views.................could see Franklin below..........got to shelter around 3:30.........most others kept going and only Trucker and Joe (Amble) were here from last night..............later we were joined by 6 others..........the ones I remember are, Smily, Dan, Karen, Brian< who sleeps in a hammock...........also a guy named Willard who plans to do a flip flop hike in May.............we may cross paths as he heads south later in the season...................set our clocks ahead, so we loose an hour of sleep...........but who would know it out here............Gear is working out good, but will try to shed some weight when Dave and Jan pick us up at Rock Gap..............I will give up the water filter and a heavy shirt. Tonite is clear but rain is forcast for tonite.                                             WHITE BLAZE DAY13Hiked down 6 miles to Rock Gap and met Dave and Jan there. Spent the rest of the day and evening eating and drinking and getting clean. Going to sleep in a real bed tonite. The house is beautiful. Been raining all evening with more predicted.So we are doing a 0 mile day tomorrow