Date: 2004-06-09
From: Catawba Shelter

To: Fullhardt Knob Shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: broken clouds

June 9th was a beautiful morning at Catawba Mountain Shelter. It was a full house last night but I couldn't tell you who was there other than Buick. There are no photos, just the register. There was probably too much going on. The start for me was pretty early.Another guy who left a bit ahead of me was already at McAfee Knob on my arrival. We swapped cameras and took pictures of each other perched on the overhanging cliff. This was kind of the perfect photo op. It was nice having someone else there. It would have been quite a jog for the self timer, not to mention a bit scary.We were both glad to catch each other there. The views were of ridge after ridge fading into the distant haze. McAfee Knob was a very photographic place. It was so clear and cool. What was a hiker to do. This was a nice place to hang out but alas it was time to go.I walked right past Campbell Shelter. It was only a hundred feet off the trail but it was uphill and there was just no reason to stop. There was a guy up there getting packed. This day was full of wonderful cliff lined ridges and moderate grades. Later Buick caught up to me. On our approach to Tinker Cliffs, a good climb, we came upon some folks out for a week. A woman gave us some dried fruit. That was nice. She confessed she was just trying to lighten her load.Up on Tinker Cliffs it was like a day at the beach. People were relaxing in the sun everywhere. We joined them to eat our lunch. It turned out to be a group from, I think Indiana. They come out for a big hike once a year. They tend to bring too much stuff and too much food. Hence, they were happy to share some food with some high metabolism thru-hikers. There were a couple of other thru-hikers there too. We scored fruit cups, pudding cups, granola bars, snickers and who knows what else. Nice yogi. Nice folks. They asked lots of great hiking questions and it was fun for us all to answer them.The cliffs continued for a while and forced us to take more pictures. We rambled on incredulous at the good fortune of our yogi and how nice those folks were. The views of the ridges, with farms nestled between, were comforting. There were huge boulders along the trail in places. At one point we walked along the base of a 20 foot tall cliff for about a hundred yards. It made me think of a little rock climbing.We caught up to a twenty something couple just before a thousand foot plummet off the ridge. She had some knee problems and needed to take the down slowly. He decided to keep us company. We hauled down pretty quickly. there was lots of good conversation too. There were several power line crossings which we were trying to reconcile with the Handbook. This was pretty silly. We'd get there when we got there but road head fever was getting in the way. This was the I-81 interchange area at Daleville and Troutville. We were headed for resupply and lunch in town.Honestly, my ego was suffering a bit on the relatively easy hike out to the road. It was pretty silly. I was actually having to work to keep up. There was the psychology of being the last in a line of 3 that was working against me and yes, that can still get to me. On top of that, to day had been a dehydration hike and it was getting to me. It was so silly to let this get to me. All was fine when we got to the roadFinally we got to the road. It was hotter than blazes on the pavement. Our new friend took a right to get a coke for his girlfriend and to wait for her. We went left down a hill to a shopping center with an outfitter and a super market. We were also hoping to find a little sub shop. Instead we found one of those fancy coffee shops. Neither of us had any interest in coffee but fortunately they had some good wraps, smoothies and deserts. Our new friends joined us for a bit just before we left. Their plan was to spend the night in town.We stopped in at the outfitter next door for a few odds and ends. Buick got some fuel and I got six feet of elastic cord to keep my Crocks from bouncing on the back of my pack. Next we went to Kroger's Super Market. Kroger's was nice. It was kind of handy, shopping with another thru-hiker. There was some one to split stuff with when the package was too big. Mostly we ate different stuff but it still came in handy for things like cocoa packets, bagels, tang and fun size candy bars. With a pint of Cherry Garcia in my hand we headed back out into the stifling heat and up the road to where the trail crossed. Some guy saw us and thinking we were lost tried to give us a lift. When we said we were not lost but hiking the AT, he got out of his car and started walking with us. Buick was out front so this guy was talking to me. It's tough enough to hike and eat ice cream at the same. It's really tough to do all that and answer questions at the same time. This guy just couldn't quite believe that this was the Appalachian Trail and that we were walking to Maine. He was talking like he wondered if he should do it. It was an odd conversation. I wasn't sure if we were being stalked or if he was just so stunned. Eventually he turned and went back. Buick asked what he wanted. That was a good question, with no real answer.Thank goodness for trees. It was so much cooler in the woods. It was only five miles to the next shelter but the sun was low in the sky and most of the 1,400 foot gain in elevation would be saved for the last mile. We stuck together and finally found the side trail to the shelter just after dark at 9:15pm.Fullhardt Knob Shelter was empty and pretty nice, especially after 22.6 miles with a town stop for resupply. The thing was that it had no water, sort of. We went about fixing an abbreviated dinner since we had just had a meal in civilization and some of us had just downed a pint of ice cream. It seems to me we were packing some rolls or sticky buns to snack on. The Handbook mentioned something about a cistern but we didn't see anything in the dark. The Thru-Hiker's Companion said a bit more. It mentioned an elaborate system to collect water off the roof of the shelter. There was certainly something strange going on behind the shelter with pipes and an underground concrete covered something. It was too late and too dark to deal with it now, but the stars were nice.