Date: 2005-04-10
From: carter gap 

To: rock gap shelter 
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

Woke up with the sun and layed around for a while. I don¢t get the best sleep out here for sure, and most people don¢t seem to either, but we still get up and hike hard all day somehow. Ran into great trail magic once again. Had sodas, rice and beans, and home-made sweet cinnamon bread. The beans and rice were cooking on a giant saw blade skillet (3 ft diameter) suspended by chains above a burning wood fire. Barry and the rest of our hosts have been there since March 15th! It worked out perfectly at about the half way point for my 12 mile day. Looks like Sam-I-am and Origami are two days ahead according to their trail register. I hope I catch them someday; I enjoyed their company. It¢s about half past eleven right now. Beautiful weather and trail. Spirits are soaring.        I had a great view today finally, and it was one of the best so far. I was able to climb to the top of a tower on Albert Mountain and get a good 360 view from an elevation of over a mile high. I walked through vast tunnels of rhododendrons with leaves the size of banana peels. Pretty smooth sailing day, but my heel started hurting really bad at one point. I had to stop and take my shoe off because I was getting extremely sharp pains in my right heel. It feels as if a blister to end all blisters is going to form, but nothing has happened over the past 4 days. I stopped wearing socks and just wore two pairs of sock liners. That alleviated a lot of the pressure. Today I am down to only a single liner on the one foot, and my heel is swollen along with some of my ankle. Fortunately I was able to dip it in an ice cold stream half way through the day, which helped tremendously. Hit another milestone today. I passed the 100 mile mark about 2 miles south of the shelter today.I will be sleeping in the shelter at night with a bunch of people around either in the shelter, in their tents, or cowboying it. The three sleeping cowboy tonight are Taxman, ¢B¢-man, and Super Trooper. They are an interesting fun bunch. Taxman is a tax collector from Britain (later 30¢s maybe). He likes the trail because no one is cursing at him or threatening his life. lol. Mostly people out here are very non-confrontational. ¢B¢-man is a 35 year old with beard about as long as mine is at the chin and a thick mustache. He looks younger than he actually is (I would have guess late 20¢s) He hikes with a hockey stick after apparently losing a bet a few years back. He seems to be very knowledgeable about the surrounding areas and trail. He has hiked over 10,000 miles of the trail in bits and pieces, and played a little minor league hockey back in the day. Super Trooper gets his name because one day he was hurt and was a real trooper and he is super. At least that is how he explained it to me. I was thinking he was going to be a state trooper or something. He is about my age. A couple from Tuscan, AZ is here tonight as well. They are decked out in matching gear. There is a resident great-horned owl that lives near the shelter. I can occasionally hear him hooting away. The moon is only a small toe-nail clipping in the sky, and the stars are excellent. On to Franklyn, N.C. tomorrow.