Date: 2013-05-16
From: NOC!

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 13 - Brown Fork Gap ShelterAnyone looking for an alternative to the StairMaster? Well, I invite you to test out the 16 miles between the NOC and my current shelter. It starts out with an 8.1 mile climb up to Cheoah Bald and a gain of approximately 3300 feet. Then, after a series of additional ups and downs, it dumps you back down to 3100 feet at Stecoah Gap. Apparently the next section is the fabled Jacob's Ladder, which I didn't know at the time. I just thought it was effing hard. It's basically a section that's upwards of a mile that is straight up the mountain, and must gain 700-800 feet. Switchbacks need not apply.   It ended up taking me 8.5 hours to hike 16 miles, which is fairly slow for me. Today was also an interesting day nature-wise. It seemed there was a lot more activity in the woods than I had yet experienced. It started with cobwebs. For the first two hours I was constantly wiping them off my face an arms. Then there was a stretch where there were thousands and thousands of baby grasshoppers - they would all hop in unison as I was coming through, and as they jumped into the leaves it sounded like it was raining. Then the most interesting thing happened. I rounded a corner, and all of a sudden there was a bunch of commotion in a bush right next to the trail. All kinds of rustling around and weird animal noises. Then, some sort of "bird" comes crashing out of the bush and on to the trail, squawking like crazy and starts running at me like I did something wrong. It must have been protecting its nest or something. I use the term "bird", because I don't know exactly what it was - it was a feathered creature the size of a turkey, but it wasn't a turkey, and that's about all I know. So anyway, this bird's eyeing me pretty harshly, and my reaction is like, listen here "bird" who doesn't even nest in a tree, and who obviously can't fly that well otherwise you would have flown away like a normal bird - don't take your insecurities out on me. Maybe if you chose a bush that wasn't right next to the trail, you wouldn't be having such an issue right now. Think about it. So, I slowly backed away, and eventually it retreated into its bush. Then, I slowly inched forward on the trail, hoping this thing won't come peck my face off (I could have gone around through the leaves and brush, but Lord knows I'm not doing that after the rattlesnake incident).   As I inched closer, it definitely got more PO'd, but it never did come back out of the bush. I was fully prepared to whack the crap out of that thing with my hiking pole, but I'm glad it never came to blows. I rolled into the shelter around 7, and there was a group of "older"guys (40s and 50s I'm guessing) from Kentucky who are on a long weekend trip. They were pretty funny - they gave each other a bunch of crap, so it reminded me a lot of my friends. When one of them asked me what my trail name was, I decided to make it official: it's "Indy" for two reasons. First, I came to do the trail alone (so like "independent"), and second, like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. The name came to me a couple days ago, and Haley said it was cool, so I figured heck yea!I forgot yesterday's quote, so today there are two:"Frank, I think the entire town knows you had an awesome time." - Old School"Mate, if you got a problem, then it's your problem, not mine. But, if you want to discuss it further we can step outside." - Green Street Hooligans