Date: 2017-04-18
From: Brown Gap, USFS Road 148A

To: "Old roadbed, spring," mile 264
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: overcast clouds

From Fatboy:Ginger's birthday. The weather has been intermittently crappy with occasional periods of deciding to rain just enough to require rain gear and then sweat so much that you're living in a stinky sauna suit. And mud. Not the suck your shoes off mud we experienced in the Smoky Mountains National Park, just enough mud to make touching anything to the ground become filthy. And impossible to find anywhere dry to sit. Ginger seems to love it. She has a perverse streak that can't be explained but she loves me and I'm a very grateful man. We have a little more than 23 miles to go before Hot Springs, NC so we need to make as many miles as we can today. We passed over Mack's Patch. This is a big bald spot on top of a mountain with a panoramic view if it's not raining and you're in the right frame of mind to want to look around. It was and I wasn't, it was cold, wet, and windy and I was in a mood that matched and all I wanted was to get somewhere warm and dry so I could get off my feet and rest my knees. We hiked on. Ginger had the good sense to not talk to me very much. I was having a tantrum time and it would have been impossible to talk me out of it. She's very smart about that and just leaves me alone to stew in my own crap until I'm through. We passed two shelters but hadn't covered enough miles to make Hot Springs after an "easy day" tomorrow. This "easy day" concept is very interesting to me. Somewhere in the last 200 plus miles of hiking up and down thousands of feet of elevation changes over rocks and sliding through muddy tracks we've decided that anything less than 10 miles is "easy." I think my IQ has dropped inversely to the number of miles I've hiked. We eventually found a very beautiful flat and level (usually impossibly elusive) tent site right beside the trail after 14.8 miles. We were both exhausted but managed dinner and the required evening tasks. It was great to lie down and feel safe and warm.From Ginger:I'm 44 today! And happy birthday to my youngest brother, Matt, who turns the big 4-0 AND my cousin Ranya, who is four years behind Matt! I've always loved that the three of us share the day. Growing up, it was a special year when we were all together to celebrate. Sometimes they joined us from Beirut, other times from France, eventually, we got to visit together in Texas, but never at birthday time. Now, we are all stateside.Rarely do we have any kind of cell or text or data access out here, but when I checked my phone at the end of the day, there were all kinds of birthday wishes awaiting me. What a wonderful way to end the day. My godmother, Mary Ellen, and her husband, Ashby, Mom and Dad, and my Ohio parents, the boys, Ken from home ... Tequila Sunshine and Happy Feet made a song video from the trail, too: "Feliz cumplea±os a ti ..." All of you made me grin and tear up.As Fatboy mentioned, we crossed Mack's Patch today. It's since been renamed Max Patch, and I dubbed it Matt's Patch in honor of Matt's birthday today. Our stay was short-lived up there because rain started rolling in and with it, wind, but I loved it. Reminded me of a place I'd visit with a high school friend in Germany.Fatboy made we a wonderful birthday dinner once we settled into camp: a big ol' cup of decaf coffee, followed by a big ol' cup of chicken bouillon (did I mention I've been eating meat again out here?!), followed by a tuna packet and two fruits. I have everything I need, and I want everything I have. What a blessed birthday.