Date: 2016-10-23
From: NOC

To: Locust Cove Gap
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: clear sky

10/23 Day 1:  I awoke after a not so great night's sleep.  I will be honest, after dropping into the NOC a year ago, I was not looking forward to the grueling climb that awaited us.  We ate in the common area, taking full advantage of the teapot and gas stove to heat our water.  Oh the conveniences of civilization.Once we were packed up and enjoyed the last flush toilet in our near futures, we walked over to the bridge that crosses the river at the NOC, took a picture at the white blaze that was painted on the tree where last year's section hike ended.  We entered the woods across the railroad tracks and suddenly Todd and Kenny were transformed into Blister and Turk.We started at 1749 feet of elevation and just started climbing and climbing.  While my pack only had 3 days of food in it, it was feeling heavy as I was once again trying to get my muscles and tendons used to the stresses of trail hiking and backpacking life.  As we climbed higher and higher, taking frequent breaks to catch our breath, we crossed paths with a few overnight hikers who relayed basically that there were a few puddles of water along the way, but no springs were flowing.  After a couple miles in, we took a break with our packs off.  We had climbed to 2990 feet by this point and has built up a good lather.  I could see water vapor evaporating off of my back looking like the steam that comes off an NFL players head on a cold day on the sideline.  After our break, we continued climbing and took another break at the Jump Up which is around 3805 feet.  We met a nice lady from the area and a cool gentleman from Texas.  I got some rally nice photographs of the gorge and all that was below, where we once were.  After pictures and some information exchanges about water and bears that were seen recently, we climbed around another 500 feet and decided to eat some lunch on a log.  Following lunch, we crossed 4400 feet at Swim Bald and then dropped into Sassafras Gap shelter.  At the shelter we saw how bad the water situation really was.  We had to use my titanium snow peak cup to scoop water from a puddle spring in order to get a couple liters of water to carry.  Following getting water, we continued to climb towards Cheoa Bald.  Somewhere up a steep section, Blister got a thigh cramp that would not release.  We stood there for around 5 minutes waiting for his leg muscle to finally let go.  We finally got to Cheoa Bald, which stands at a whopping 5062 feet, and took lots of photographs, and a break. At the end of the day, we did a long steep descent to a camping area located at mile 147.6 called Locust Cove Gap.  This was sitting at 3690 feet.  For the day, we climbed 3623 feet and dropped 1682 feet.Once we got to the gap, we had around an hour of daylight left to get set up, find water, hang our food, and eat, etc.  I searched pretty far down the hill for water and came up with nothing.  The water shortage situation was starting to get serious.  We had a couple liters left for dinner, breakfast and to hike to the next water source on the next day.  We were in conservation mode to say the least.  We set up our hammocks, and had a pretty good laugh as we both tried to throw Blister's rock bag over a branch that looked 30 feet in the air.  I am pretty sure there were approximately 20 unsuccessful attempts.   Hiker midnight had arrived and we were off to slumber.