Date: 2006-04-10
From: Big Spring Shelter

To: Bartram Trail (mile 114.7)
Miles today: 17.2

This morning Salt and Pepper left out of camp pretty early and I ended up sleeping in for a while. They were headed into Franklin, NC to pick up some supplies and since I still had plenty I decided to bypass town. This bought a little time not rushing me to leave out of camp quite so early. Silver Foot and I ate breakfast together and then headed out of camp around 8:30am. I could really tell the mileage that we had done yesterday because my legs were really sore and tired. Thankfully the first section of trail out of Big Spring was mostly downhill all the way to Winding Stair Gap. This gave me a chance to work some of the soreness out of my legs and to get my feet back under me before reaching US-64. Just before the gap on US-64 but just after Old US-64 I ran across a little trail magic sitting in the ice-cold creek. Someone had put a few Capri-suns in the ice-cold creek and I was lucky enough to get one. I propped myself up against a log and sipped away until it was gone, then continued my way over to Winding Stair Gap where I met Waterfall, Weston, and Jessie from Ohio. They were taking a cool mid-day dip in the stream when I passed. Even though it was a bit chilly earlier this morning as I passed the stream I too stopped to wash off a little. From the trailhead there at US-64 the trail was all up hill to Siler¢s Bald. On the way up to the bald the trail ended up passing an interesting place called Swinging Lick Gap. Not sure how this place received its name but it won¢t soon be forgotten. The top of Siler¢s bald ended up not having much of a view and the climb up to the top made for a really tough afternoon. I ended up hitting a ¢wall¢ during this climb and just couldn¢t get my feet back under me for the longest time. It took a while to get to the top and this only happened because I took several long breaks. When I got to the Siler Bald Shelter I thought about stopping for the night but the shelter was nearly half a mile off the trail so I decided to push on a little further instead of stopping. When I reached the Bartram Trail intersection around mile 114 there was a nice camping spot so I decided to stay and camp out for the night. As soon as I entered the campsite I noticed a tent on the backside of the fire ring with cloths hanging in the trees all around it. Just about this time I was greeted with voices from inside the tent. ¢Hey, we are Shasta and H-bomb.¢ I walked over to their tent and introduced myself. Shasta and H-Bomb were Peace Corp volunteers and have just gotten back from a three-year visit in Tanzania. Their next goal was to hike the AT so now here they are making their way toward Katahdin. By dark the campsite was full and there were people everywhere. We built a huge fire and gathered around it. Thanks to Jordan now ¢Donkey Love¢ we all entertained ourselves with smores while introducing ourselves as directed by Rip. It ended up being a great night on the trail with a lot of new friendships being made.Tonight at Camp: H-Bomb (South Carolina), Shasta (California), Jane (Tennessee), Baro (Alabama), Donkey, (Massachusetts) Rip (Cape Cod), Pillbox (Massachusetts), Tree Hugger (Massachusetts), Sage (Florida), Salt (Virginia), Pepper, Spindle Shanks (South Africa), and Slow Coach (South Africa).