Date: 2007-05-11
From: Overmountain Shelter, TN

To: Apple House Shelter, TN
Miles today: 8.2

Last nite was a restless nite for me. I kept waking up with my feet and legshurting, despite taking Vitamin I. I also think I was dehydrated, so eventhough it was warmer tonight (55 degrees when I woke up @ 6:15 a.m.) than lastnite, I ended up using my sleeping pad, wearing my down jacket, and using myfleece pants and glove liners. I couldn't seem to get warm without all thelayers, but was fine with them. Weird.I have come to terms with the fact that I am "special" when it comes to throwinga bearbag rope. I have a special gift of throwing every rope exactly 180degrees from the place I'm aiming! LOL Last nite was so bad, Persistent wasalmost speechless, but our laughter thundered in the mountains.We were up and going by 8:18 a.m. We weren't sure where we were headed. Weheard the next shelter, Apple House Shelter, was not always safe due to it being.5 miles from the road, but it was a nice low distance.We started off climbing up and up (as usual). Nothing like a good climb to wakeyou up in the morning! I will say, today's hike was absolutely fantastic withunbelievable views!First was Little Hump Mountain, which was our first of 2 balds today. God, itwas so beautiful. We could see where the trail lead up the next mountain too. Views that went forever, the sun against the valley of mountains, in the 70's, acool breeze, and grassy balds as far as the eye could see. From the top of thisbald, I took a picture of the shelter we had stayed at last nite. It was a tinyspeck in a green meadow nestled in between mountains.On our way down Little Hump Mountain, Persistent stopped in her tracks andpointed at about a dozen deer running full speed across the trail about 30 feetin front of us! They were being chased by a tiny litle dog, and we later heardsomeone saw a hunter in the area. It was like one of those National Geographicsthat show antelope running in a herd from a leopard or something. Reallyexhilarating.Now it was up the last big climb for awhile, Hump Mountain, which is anotherbald. Man oh man, I totally felt like Julie Andrews in the sound of music! LOL It didn't even look like this country, it was like being in Ireland. If you'veever seen those tourist commercials for different states where it shows aclose-up of people backpacking, and then the helicopter camera pans out and itis this unbelievable vastness and the hikers are now tiny dots on the ridge of amountain...well, that was me today. I just couldn't stop looking everywhere like a little kid does in a store window@ Christmas.The climb was still tough, but nothing like Roan Mt. It helps when you can seewhere you're actually headed. We got to the top and Josh and Sara, and Boognishwere up there. Persistent and I loligagged a lot today! My gosh, getting upearlier makes a HUGE difference.We had to go thru this wooden gate, in the shape of a V. Well, they aren't thatwide, and my 25" wide sleeping pad (standard thermarest is ony 20", I use awider one for my hammock) didn't fit so well! LOL Persistent took 2 pics of metrying to wedge myself thru it, and I was dying laughing. She recomended I takemy pack off, but in my normal stubborn fashion, I refused! LOLAs we were breaking on top of Hump Mountain, a group of guys led by a 2006 thruhiker, Taco, showed up. They were from the same college, and they werehilarious. We stayed up there for 40 min., ate a snack, and finally decided to start the 5mile descent.Still though, beautiful balds for quite awhile and perfect weather. Persistentand I got some great pics of each other hiking up and down these balds today.Going down Hump Mt., eventually turned into the normal thick green forest withrocky foot pounding trail. It came in spurts though, so we'd get relief fromtime to time.Our next "extended break" location was a spring on the trail. Persistent had todoctor her blisters some more (damn those new shoes!), then we ate anothersnack, then we got water, then we sat there for awhile. Taking breaks ondownhills really helps the foot pain a lot.We were headed to Doll Flats, which was an incredibly beautiful campground about2.4 miles before Apple House Shelter. We got there, and it took everything wehad not to stay. A huge grassy meadow, next to a perfect wooded area forhanging, a stream. Everything perfect for a campground.We loligaged again and talked to Boognish, a cool guy from Georgia that ishiking 26 miles to Kincora Hostel in celebration of his 26th birthday tomorrow! Persistent and I forced ourselves to leave, but because we were feeling prettygood, it was only 2:00'ish, so we decided to go to the shelter and see if anyoneelse was staying there. If not, we were planning on hiking another 1.7 past thehighway and up a small mountain and take our chances on finding a stealth site.On our way down, I met a guy, John, who is doing his 4th thru-hike! A talkerbut funny. He told me his first time was in 1994, before the internet, soinformation was scarce. He found his way to the AT B&B in Maine and asked to beshuttled to "where everyone starts hiking the trail." He got taken to AbolBridge, which is 10 miles SOUTH of Mt. Katahdin! LOL He had to hike toKatahdin to start his hike, and he at first had all of his gear in a green drawstring laundry bag! LOLAs he was telling me about this, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. A 3 ft (atleast) long black snake was laying acros the trail. She was BEAUTIFUL!! Sheactually rattled her tail against the leaves, I guess to mimick a rattler. Igot some great pics though. Biggest snake I've seen yet! We got to Apple House Shelter, TN at 3:09 p.m. Fuzzy Monkey and 1 other guy wasthere. Really beautiful spot with a great spring and fire ring, tent\hammockspots. We all talked about what we were going to do. Finally more and morepeople showed up, so we decided to stay. Because we were there so early, I had time to wash out some clothing, take abandana bath, and guess what..lolligag some more! We have 24.3 miles to ournext resupply, but after the first 6 miles tomorrow, the terrain gets MUCHeasier.Tonite, we are here with a great group of people. Fuzzy Monkey (who built anawesome fire), Quicktoes (who gave us chocolate), Freghtliner (a fellow hammockhanger who is spending his 7th nite in his hammock, getting double eye rollsfrom Persistent!), Hiccup and Yellowsnowman, and Flax Seed (a 70 year oldChinese man who hiked over 16 miles today!!). Freightliner has 2 other section hiker friends coming in later, and he calledthem to see if they'd bring ingredients for smores! I don't even likemarshmallows, but if given the opportunity, I'd eat a whole bag right now..I'MSTARVING!! LOLI'm hanging from 1 pretty small tree and a regular sized tree, but it isn'tbudging when I sit down, so we'll see. It is a gorgeous nite, the fire is burning, I'm in shorts and my camisole. Idid have to sew up yet another hole in my hiking pants. Persistent keeps askingme when I'm getting new ones, because I'm resorting to holding them up bypulling them up way high and cinching the hip belt of my pack around them! LOL I told her I'd get new pants when I absolutely had to. Well, a great day, short, and time to relax. You need some of those once inawhile, especially after yesterday's butt-kicking day! It's 69 degrees, at 8:09p.m. ~Certain