Date: 2004-04-28
From: Hot Springs (Elmer's Sunnybank Hostel)

To: Max Patch
Miles today: 19.8

Max Patch9PM - Tenting on top of Max PatchMax Patch is the second true bald I have crossed (Big Bald near Sams Gap was the first one. The Hump is not a true bald, but is kept bald by human action.). Everyone who mentions it speaks highly of it. From its top there is a 360* view of the surrounding mountains, probably as far back as the Roans and certainly ahead to the Smokies. Max Patch is nearly 20 miles out of Hot Springs, but I decided to try to reach here tonight, because besides the views of mountains, balds afford good views of sun rises and sets, as well as of stars.But, I left late (9AM) and met my record number of people (54, 45 of them thru-hikers), so walking nearly 20 miles with a full pack and a 3300' elevation change was going to be a challenge. I stopped at shelter in the late afternoon and had dinner, since fires are not allowed atop Max Patch. I stopped at another shelter for water around 6. Since it was already beginning to look like evening and I still had to climb Max Patch, I was thinking of stopping short of my goal, and had begun to ask people if they had seen campsites a mile or two before there.But after I left the shelter and started my climb, I noticed a strange phenomenon. The later it got the lighter it got. The shelter was deep in a valley surrounded by mountains. The higher I got the fewer mountains rose above me, so I was in the sun more often. So I decided to go for the summit of Max Patch, even if it was risking getting there in the dark. But by 7:30 I was in the sun constantly, and shortly thereafter I could see the bare summit rise up above me. I could tell that I would make it before dark, and in fact I got to the top and had set up my tent before the edge of the sun touched the mountains to the west. I saw a lot of nature around me today. Leaves are beginning to come out on the crown trees of the woods, even at 4500'. I saw my first trillium today. They well deserve the 'tri' in their name. Each trillium plant consists of one stalk about 18" high with 3 leaves coming out of the stalk at the same point. A little higher on the stalk is a single flower with three petals (ranging from white to deep purple) each backed by a single leaf (sepal?), and each of the parts in the center of the flower occur in multiples of three. At places the floor of the woods was carpeted with trilliums (trillia?).I also have decied the Hot Springs must be the poison ivy capital of the world, since where the AT enters town from both the north and the south, it is choked with poison ivy. That may not be a fair designation though, since I haven't been to other places this low since the poison ivy season began.I met the following people on the Trail today:Train Wreck; Geezer; Chaskee; Bone Spur; Ursa Minor; April Showers; Myst; Section hikers Little Bear with daughter Hummingbird and companion Spiderman; 5 Beers; Swan; Backdraft; Dig Dug; (someone who motioned that he couldn't hear, and didn't want to talk); T; Baby Blue; Scoutmaster; Rooney Toons; Pippin; Crazy Horse?; Sundown; Cowgirl; Wayah; Leslie; Hippie Trails; Firecracker; Bones; Don't Mind; Don't Matter; Puck Finn; Sleep Ninja; Java; Gefilter; Powder Finger; Red; Flint; Grampa Jim; Fancy Free (96 thru-hiker section hiking); Saffron; Just Rick; T Bot; Bob & Jane section hiking; Mr T; Kristin; Stick Man; Ranger; (a hiker with a well-proportioned muscular body with nothing on but shoes, shorts and a pack, and who clearly didn't want to talk); Yola; Mother Nature; Smokestack; Impulse and Night Rider. The last two are staying on Max Patch tonight.Now, I think I'll go look at some stars.See you on down the TrailMessage to Apple Pie - I retrieved your message at Deer Park Shelter, as you requested. I used it to help start Flint's birthday bonfire at Walnut Mtn Shelter.