Date: 2013-03-28
From: Hawk Mountain Shelter

To: Lance Creek Campsite
Miles today: 16.2

I had to get up in the night around 1:30, and found a very bright full moon which "gave the luster of mid-day to objects below." It would have been a great night for night-hiking, altho the trail might not have been the best for it, but it gave me the idea of getting up before dawn and walking a bit by moon-light. Well, I was awake at 5:00, and it took me till 6:25 to get packed and out of there [still no one else up and no daylight ¢ & the moon had set!] -- I've sure got to improve on that!Nice hiking thru the morning, as I passed various camp-sites [with people still in their tents], Horse Gap, Cooper Gap, Justus Creek, I was reminded that I could easily have made it farther yesterday.Many people talk about Sassafras Mountain as difficult, but I found it to have nicely graded switch-backs. At Cooper Gap, I found a small tanker trailer parked by the Army. I assume it's water for the Rangers who practice in this area, but probably hikers can help themselves too. After that, I would pass or be passed repeatedly a young man from Raleigh-Durham, whio seemd to be going about the same speed I was. At Gooch Mtn Shelter, we met a hiker from Boston, as we all stopped in for lunch and privy break.As I approached Woody Gap around 4:00, I started thinking, "Maybe someone will have 'Trail Magic' there. No such luck, tho I learned later that there had been someone feeding hikers around noon. In my section hikes in odd seasons of the year, I had only benefited from "Trail Magic" a few times -- it doesn't make sense to count on it now. Besides, if you eat too much at road crossings, you get to carry the food in your pack that much farther . . . at least till "hiker-hunger" sets in.Eating was something I didn't do well today. Delaying lunch till 4:00 was NOT a good idea. I was really dragging thru the afternoon, which I always do to some extent. But I think the learning here is that if you want to keep up a full head of steam, you have to keep stoking the boiler. Energy bars don't keep me going very well, partly because they turn my stomach after a while. It seems easy, but I do have better stuff to eat!While eating at Woody Gap, a hiker came out of the woods from the North. He'd been several miles in and learned that a friend had died, so he was coming back to get a ride out. A reminder that things that happen in the outside world will impinge on our Trail experience. It did sound like he'll be back.The next few miles, up and down Big Cedar Mtn, didn't seem really difficult, except I was tired, but my right knee started bothering me. There was no real hope of continuing another 7 miles to Neel's Gap anyway, so I stopped at Lance Creek campsite. So did everyone else, and there weren't many spaces left. There are very few flat spaces other that on an old woods road thru the area, so there were more than 20 tents strung out over what seemed like a quarter mile. To get back and forth, e.g., to get water, hang bear bags, &c., you had to walk back and forth around and between tents all strung out along the road. At least, there was enough daylight [barely} to take care of necessities and meet a few people. Nice place -- just a little crowded!I should explain why everyone ended up here. Because of bear problems in the next 7 miles, the Forest Service requires campers in that area to have bear canisters [stout plastic "jars" that only a few bears in the world have figured out how to open]. Since most AT hikers are travelling light, they prefer to stop just before entering that territory. No one knows how the bears learn to respect the boundary, but we didn't see any of them.