Date: 2008-04-20
From: Allen Gap

To: Campsite
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: light rain

Rick has asked that I, Paul Donaldson (AKA P¢Ditty), make an entry for the trail update for Sunday and Monday April 20-21. The plan was for a 3 day hike that was completed in 2 days. Older and out of shape Rick has one again tried to kill me but I am getting ahead of my self. Sunday April 20 I dropped off a pick up car at Sam¢s Gap and proceeded to Allen Gap to meet with Rick for a leisurely 20 mile hike over 3 days. It was a foggy drizzly day when Rick and I met at our planned spot at 1000 am. We hiked a short distance to where Rick had set up camp for the night. While Rick was breaking down camp I met 2 brothers that were through hiking that had also camped in the same area for the night. They were really into quickly hiking the trail and planning on finishing in about 4 months instead of the normal 6. After breaking camp we set off for our fist stop at Little Laurel Shelter 5 miles in with an elevation climb of about 1000 feet. As we started there was not much to see in the way of views due to the mist and fog, however the forest was just starting to burst forth with wild flower ground cover. I was fun trying to remember all of the flower names I once knew without thought growing up. Many names now escaped me as I had not seen them in many years. Our pace was steady and the miles were passing behind us. I felt good and could tell Rick was glad to see that we were going to be able to put some miles behind us as he had just taken a break from the trail. About a mile before the Little Laurel Shelter the pitch increase and the paced slowed a bit. The two brothers blew past us without a second thought. Rick was hitting his stride so continued to the shelter to start cutting up some summer sausage and cheese for lunch while a ¢paced¢ myself for the last mile. Once at the shelter we ate a little bit while chatting with the 2 brothers as they stopped as well for a quick bit to eat. It was only 2pm, the drizzle had stopped and I was actually feeling really good, so suggested we continue several more miles and break up the planned 5 mile, 10 mile, 5 mile plan to more like a 7, 7, 6 plan. Rick pulled out his trusty map and thought this would be a splendid idea as there was a fairly steep rise (1200 feet over 1.5 miles) and then it would be EASY ridge line for the next 3 miles. We struck off up the mountain and once arriving at the ridge, although still over cast, were rewarded with some really nice views of a forest in early foliage hues of green. That is about the only redeeming thing for the next three mile as the EASY 3 miles of ridge hiking turned out to be a gauntlet of granite. We descended 50 to 60 feet bolder hopping and stepping down granite steps only to ascend 50 to 60 feet up the same type of terrain. After three miles of crossing God¢s version of a Stairmaster I was hitting my limit while Rick was smirking and chuckling under his breath at my comments. Sorry but they are not fit for print. At the end of the ridge line we decided we would make the 0.5 mile descent to Jones meadow to make camp for the night. Due to the fact we only had half a mile left to hike for the day Rick persuaded me to hike up to and up the fire tower. The views were just what I was needed as a reward. It was a good feeling to be out sharing these experiences again with an old friend on his journey across the AT. We made our way to Jones Meadow where we were planning to stop for the night. We pulled the map to take a look at what was left of the next 2 days of hiking. As I was looking at the map I started counting miles for the hike and kept coming up with 30 miles not 20. After some colorful discussions it was determined that there was a flaw to our well thought out plan. As it turned out our first plan was preempted by events and we had to come up with a plan B. While plugging in the NEW meeting point for plan B into my GPS unit I had failed to plug in plan B¢s end point and retained plan A¢s end point some 10 miles further. So we pushed on to make Jerry¢s Cabin Shelter another 2.5 miles away. We made it to about one mile away when we came to a camp site that we could not pass up. It was level with a nice soft ground cover and besides¢¦¢¦.I was done. It was 700pm and we set up camp cook a quick dinner and were calling it a day by 800pm. It was a sound sleep for both of us with little waking throughout the night except for a brief visit from a red squirrel which decided to check out Rick¢s accommodations about 600am.