Date: 2015-03-22
From: Pounding Mill Trail

To: Hog Back Ridge
Miles today: 20.0

I tried to better manage my pace today by slowing down. One of the ways I was going to do this was taking some time playing with my cameras.I tinkered and tried a few pieces of gear that I brought. Things like my head-strap for my camera and trying special functions out. This was an opportune time since I was crossing a rocky, narrow, jumbled boulder ridge that would need filming.The escarpment was a little underwhelming, but still cool. It is hard to outdo the Argentine Trail portion of the CDT. I was really happy to have figured out a few things on my cameras. As the trail returned to its standard form, I patiently picked up my pace.I Had a pleasantly cloudy day! Not one of those looming, scary stormy buildup; one of those "just filter out the sun enough to be forgiving" type.The trail passed a Civil War grave with two brothers. The story goes like this, two brothers in the Union Army went back home to visit their family and were killed. The graves were well-decorated with flowers from hikers.Often the trail itself was forgiving with softer earth; but more often the softer ground contained a web of tree roots to further trip and stumble upon.I hiked up to a guy with a backpack and an unusual little side holster. "Camera?" I theorized to myself.Nope! It was a trail maintainer/volunteer named TheCleaner. He was painting fresh blazes along his section of trail. The side holster was his spray gun. He was very friendly and enjoyable to talk to.I met up with Whistler and Hootie for a second time today. Whistler was a long distance runner and had a great pace. I think Hootie said the Whistler is 58! Hootie was also an equally-paced hiker in his early 30's. He was from Colorado, so I suspect he gets quite a bit of elevation training.As I hiked with Hootie and Whistler, I felt wetness on my back side.   "Hmm, that's not good." I pondered.I ignored it for a bit, but ultimately had to stop and check it out.    "Well, I am really glad that it is not raining", I thought to myself as I looked into my pack.My hydration hose had come loose and spilled about a liter of water in my pack. It was not a huge deal as l was near water and everything in my pack is in separate waterproof sacks, but I had prided myself in never having done that. At least my gear is a bit cleaner now!! Can you say oops?!In the evening as I was enjoying a pack of Starburst, I hiked passed an amazing cascade. It was quite photogenic and gave the climb a good purpose. It looked like the stereotypical imagines of North Carolina/Tennessee. Smaller ribbons of water crookedly shooting down a rocky section, to rejoin again at the base.I walked on into early evening... I decided to continue following my CDT evening routine and got my camp-water so that I could dry camp (just as it sounds, camping away from water sources). It was gave you the flexibility to choose a nice spot.In the waining daylight, I headed up along a gentle ridge and found my spot for the night. Perfect. Bear tree (to hang my food from) and a flat spot!Time for dinner!!As I finished eating dinner, the soft pat-pat-pat of rain started to fall. I felt fortunate that I had my tarp set up and dinner cooked. Perfect timing!!