Date: 2012-03-20
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Sassafras Gap Shelter
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: broken clouds

another Sassafras! all of the hikers keep commenting on just how many of these are popping up. Very popular name apparently. I'll say that the best thing about NOC was the public computer they let me spend hours at updating this journal and getting all of the other internet things done i need to. I'm sure my reliance on the computer would make the AT founders role over in their graves but as they say hike your own hike. most everyone didn't know this computer was available so there was no one to share with and they let me stay on as long as I wanted. I also went this morning for a great pancake breakfast and to weigh my pack. 42 pounds oooof. way to much! ok it's time to send gear home. luckily they have usps here so I sent home all my fleece that I'm no longer wearing and some little items that don't weigh hardly anything themselves but more and more I know how much it all seems to be adding up. I sent enough weight home to get my pack down to 38 with 2 liters of water (4.4 lbs) and 3-4 days food. still too heavy but I won't send any more cold weather gear home before the Smokies. There be snow in them hills I hear! well actually the weather is suppose to be nice for us but mountains tend to do whatever they want regardless of weather reports for all the valley towns. headed out around noonish because of course 7 miles straight up hill in 80 degree hottest part of the day weather has always been a good idea.....she has brains I tell you! sorta. saw some awesome wildlife today because I was really taking my time heading up the hill. there was a newt just as I crossed the railroad track s and this awesome lizard just a little further on. he was brown with the faintest iridescent green and red stripes down his back. I moved slowly and stocked him quite a ways getting as many pictures as I could.   great picture day today with all the new underbrush sending out it's bright green buds early well before the bigger trees, it's as if they know once those go all the sunlight will be gone so they are trying so hard to grow now. there was also this tree with no bark where you can see all the paths the insects made under it's bark. it looked like carved art or a tattoo. very cool. I almost ran out of water today. and was pretty dehydrated for about two hours before I came across a source. serves me right I guess, i know I drink more than others but everyone keeps telling me to carry less water. no thank you. there were also a lot of big tippy rocks just begging to break a leg and another steep little climb up called the jump on. who names these anyway? I hiked parallel to a big thunder storm moving along this valley to my right. At first I was a little worried it was going to hit me but it just stayed put. So cool to be higher than the rain clouds watching them dump water down below. impossible to describe but it reminded me of a childhood memory of standing in a parking lot watching this huge storm and a wall of water moving toward me in a line. as if you could stand it one foot in the sunshine and another in a massive storm. Staying at the nicest shelter I've seen so far with spoon, cheese, motown, boxhead. there are some real fast ones moving through too and some other tenters around. NC is finally delivering what I expected from it with pine trees and red clay.