Date: 2007-05-09
From: Iron Mountain Gap, TN

To: Clyde Smith Shelter, TN
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: broken clouds

Woke up @ 9:00 a.m., and we had to do 1 load of laundry, resupply for 4 days,and mail stuff out at the P.O. We weren't sure how we were getting to any ofthese places, and our gear was EVERYWHERE! LOLThe Sole brand insoles I bought @ the outfitters aren't going to work afterallfor my feet, the arch support is too much, so I called them to see if I couldreturn them and get refunded the $40.00 they cost. Long story short, YES! Imailed them to Mahoney's today, so that's awesome.I'm now using Spenco insoles, and they sem to be working great. Similar insupport to Superfeet but with a slight bit more cushion.I also mailed my 2 pairs of shoes (old ones that started coming apart @ 100miles, and the new ones they sent me that were too small) to REI. I'm crossingmy fingers all that works out too. If not, I'll be calling my friend (whom I'veonly met via email) Victoria, who works @ REI in Virginia, and who hasgraciously offered her help anytime I need it. (THANKS VICTORIA!)We got the motel people to take us to the laundry place, and got that going. Then we walked down to the P.O., did all our mail stuff, and on the way back tothe laundry, I stopped @ Walgreens and was actually able to resupply there. Ifreakin love Walgreens anyways, but this one was stocked w\all kinds of hikerfood.We've planed 4 full days (plus today's little hike) and we are both now beingfaced with the dilemma all thru-hikers are faced with. Buy enough food to tameour insane appetites, which means our food bags would weigh 10 tons or pack"just enough" and deal with a certain amount of hunger. I chose the hunger.I've dealt with that before in Marine bootcamp, and I feel comfortable judgingthe amount of food I need versus the amount I want. Besides, I've still got somereserves of fat left! LOLOh speaking of that, John, the professor that is doing a study on thephysiological affects of a thru-hike on the body, called me last nite! He wastrying to track us down (remember, we did our initial testing @ the Hiker Hostelthe nite before we started our hikes), and he will be at Trail Days to do ournext round of testing. I am super excited to see what changes have alreadyhappened in my body. So as I was walking back to get the laundry, Tim from Ms. Janets saw me andpulled over. He gave us a ride back to the motel so we could get packed up. Heran some errands and came back about 12:30 p.m. Then he took us to the hardwarestore so we coud get some denatured alcohol, and then to Wendy's so we couldgrab some lunch (Bacon Cheeseburger, large water, pint of milk, and a Frosty..alight lunch LOL), and he took us back up to Iron Mountain Gap so we could headnorth again. Super nice guy, funny, and fun to meet. We'll miss ya man, butwe'll find you @ Trail Days!So we got started about 1:45 p.m. We knew we definitely wanted to get to theshelter, because tomorrow is going to be a tough day. We're going over RoanMountain @ 6,275 feet. It's the last 6,000+ mountain until Mt. Washington inNew Hampshire.My pack felt awesome. I did a good job with food this time, and I felt reallystrong today. We went over the first "hill" and down into Weedy Gap. It waslike all of the animals were welcoming me back. The butterflies flew right upto me, a chipmunk ran a safe distance, but we made eye contact, birds werechirping, and it just felt so good to be back. This gap reminded me of whatheaven looked like in the Robin William's movie, "What Dreams May Come." It wasgorgeous with white, purple, yellow flowers and bright green grass. Great wayto start a hike.The next totally cool thing that happened, is I started hearing what soundedlike raindrops hitting the leaves all around me, but it was perfect blue skiestoday, so it wasn't rain.Come to find out, it was hundreds (if not thousands) of baby grasshoppers thatwould start jumping like crazy when I hiked by them! They apparently share thesame philosophy as squirrels that cross the street just as you drive past them,because just as I would step, about 20 of them would jump right out in front ofme. I could see them all jumping everywhere on either side of me, and it lookedlike little black pellets popping out of the ground! I took a video of it, soit will be up on my site once I send this memory card home. It was SO COOL!! Persistent said her pack was still way heavy. We both think she packed too muchfood. We're both trying a different tactic. Instead of 3 distinct meals andsnacks, we're trying to just graze more throughout the day on small snacks. We'll see how it goes. At the top of Iron Mountain she was trying to give granola bars away to anyonewho hiked by, just to get rid of the weight! LOL There was also these coolrocks there, so I climbed around on them for a bit.We got to the shelter @ 5:15 p.m. The temps today were in the mid-70's, and itwas gorgeous. We were the only 2 here till 7:00 p.m. What's hilarious is thatwe both set up camp totally far away from each other. So far we both actuallygot worried about the other, because we were calling each other's names out andneither of us heard it! Persistent worried maybe someone stole my pack, becauseit wasn't @ the shelter any more (I ad moved everything up to my campsite), andwhen I came back from getting water and found no trace of her, I feared thatperhaps I had witnessed an alien abduction and that she would re-appearsomewhere in New Jersey disoriented and with a small metal probe up her nose! LOL Alas, she was just set up a bit behind the shelter where I couldn't seeher. LOL I'm hanging over a sea of green tonight. Spring has really arrived, and thesmell is wonderful. You know that horrible perfume that is supposed to smelllike spring flowers? You know, the chemically-smelling stuff your grandma wearsthat could also be used as paint thinner? Well, whoever mixes that stuff needsto come out here and smell what spring is really like. Sweet, subtle, light,yet full of fragrance. It is 8:23 p.m. and is 63 degres in my hammock. Sleeping with only thermals,bag as a quilt and tarp pitched wide, with no ccf pad. We are starting our "getup early" regimine in the morning, so I have my alarm set for 6:15 a.m. YUCK!! The birds are still going at it, I hear an owl in the distance and a bunch ofother birds I've not heard out here. I swear I hear a baby Eagle, but probablynot. The sun has not yet set, and there's a slight chill in the air. It's goodto be back out, hanging in comfort, and within the environment that I feel mostcomfortable now, in nature. Shoes did good today, a little irritation on my right heel, but I think timewill fix that. I am in high spirits, and feel optimistic again that I reallyCAN pull this off! LOL ~Certain