Date: 2008-03-27
From: Sassafrass Gap Shelter

To: Stealth campsite
Miles today: 12.9

Well ain't this creepy. This is my first night camping alone. It would be less creepy if I had a campfire, but alas, I have found that I haven't mastered that art yet.Nothing really noteworthy happened today...I hiked almost all day with Pops and Brush Strokes. They make me feel better about myself being out of shape. Occasionally Pops will come up a crest and declare, "That's tough on a fat kid." On one hill today Brush Strokes, who is usually fairly soft spoken, bursted out that if he ever met the guy who designed the trail that way (straight up with no switchbacks) he would kick his ass. We did have some tough climbs today.The toughest was the unnamed (officially) hill coming out of Stecoah Gap. It was terrible! The trail went straight up the side, and there were NO SWITCHBACKS until near the very top when it probably would have been quicker to keep going up the side of the hill like I'd been doing the WHOLE TIME. It was another trail first: the first time I cursed at the mountain (using my special magic word) OUT LOUD. I even gave the mountain the bird. It was somewhat satisfying. I took a picture in a moment of desperation.After the hill I got to Brown Fork Gap Shelter pretty quick to find Bearpaw, Windjammer, Bayou and Alf there, none of which were going to stay the night. I signed the register and waited for Pops and Brush Strokes, who mosied down the hill in short order. The previous mountain really had them beat, so they decided to stay at the shelter. I would have liked to stay...but I needed to hike more than 9.2 miles so I wouldn't have to do 12.7 tomorrow. I have to get to Fontana Dam post office by Saturday at 12:00 so I can retrieve my mail, and today is Thursday. It might take me all day tomorrow to hike the 9-ish miles to the Fontana Hilton.Maybe at Fontana the group will get together again. We saw Leaping Turtle briefly today, and the last register stated that he was heading to the next shelter (about 3 miles away from my campsite).So after leaving Pops and Brush Strokes I decided to try and camp at Cody Gap, but when I got there the site was taken. I kept going. The time was verging on 6:30 and I had yet to find a site.Around 7 I found a site (on top of a hill) with a fire ring and set up camp. I ate, hung my bear bag, and am now lying in my hammock being creeped out. I am hearing ever little sound, and it feels so lonely to be without a few friends for the night. I was going to call someone familiar but my cell phone is dead despite my best efforts to preserve the battery. I've got the chills.I like to socialize at night. All day I'm lost in my own thoughts and at night I like to hear voices outside my own brain. Tonight, too bad.There were several things I was thinking about today. After leaving the shelter this morning we met with Blake for a few minutes, as he was camped on Cheoah Bald. Blake is from New Jersey originally, but has lived in Georgia a while. he always has an interesting take on things. From his campsite on the bald, he said it's about a 15 minute walk down to the water source. He said he had followed the blue blazes down for a long time the night before, and started seeing little blue flags tied to the trees. He said to us, "I almost thought I was gonna get mugged. I thought, 'There's no water here...okay, you got me.'" It's so funny how different people have different takes on things. I would have thought someone was playing a prank on me, not setting me up to be mugged. Jersey must be violent :P.I was also thinking about a prank I saw on Candid Camera. They took people (who thought they were going to see a doctor) and sat them alone in a room with a picture of a naked person on the wall, a man for the women and a woman for the men. The pictures had little curtains that covered their special spots. The whole point of the experiment was to see how many people would peek behind the curtain, and when they did an alarm would go off. The people would always grow embarrassed and red faced. I don't know why I was thinking about that, but it kept a smile on my face for about 2 hours.I was thinking about sunshine. Specifically the smell that results when the sun warms up fallen leaves and pine needles. I'm in love with the smell.Another thing--I may be getting staph infections. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens with that.