Date: 2009-04-17
From: campsite about 2 mi. past Sams Gap

To: campsite on Temple Hill
Miles today: 20.5

We were both going to get up to watch the sunrise, but I only managed to make it out of my hammock at 6:37. I walked down to the meadow and took some pictures, and then saw a male deer, who paused to check me out before hopping away, butt bouncing high in the air. Truckin' woke up after me, and stayed up on the hill. She was ready to leave at about 7:43 am, and I followed a few minutes later (another record!). I took my time, as I photographed the meadow (and wondered if I would see Truckin' again, even though she was only a few minutes ahead, as I could not see her!). I caught up to her as she stripped layers, and I did the same. Neither one of us had any water, but my guidebook said there was some 2 miles away. My guidebook was wrong! The power lines were much father than they should have been, according to the pages, and the ascent to Big Bald was much shorter than it said. Hmmm.. Truckin' stopped to collect water from a little stream, and I went ahead to the campsite that I originally planned to get it from (a lot farther than 2 miles!) The water trickled out of the pipe on the blue-blazed path, and my steripen kept giving me the red light, so it took quite awhile to collect. But I enjoyed the solitude in the sunlight, and Truckin' was kind enough to wait for me!   We climbed up Big Bald, with beautiful views all around us! This was our Max Patch! We could see Big Stamp across the way, and proceeded on, passing another big patch of snow. More snow?! We reached Big Bald shelter by 10:40 and took a quick power bar break and read through the registry. At 11 am, we had only 10.6 miles to get to the next shelter (with six miles to get into Erwin after that!) No problem!    We decided to take the side trail to High Rocks (which was more of what we envisioned Frozen Knob/Lick rock to be, and enjoyed our lunch up there. When coming down, we were startled to see a hiker in front of us! It was Stuffsack, who had come all the way from Hogback Ridge shelter, and it was only 1:34! He planned on making it to Erwin that day, making it a 27 mile day! Wow! Now, these were the kind of guys I had expected to see more of on the trail. And here, I was, nearly one month into the trip, and meeting the first one! He lept over the rock and laughed outloud as he munched on his peanut butter tortilla. It was not long before he passed us by, turning backwards to chat with us for a couple of minutes before he disappeared. Truckin' and I meandered along. It was quite a warm afternoon (75 degrees!). I heard the sound of rushing water and felt the desire to get in it. When I saw it, I told Truckin' that I wanted to go down the bank and feel it, so she let me bushwack my way down, while she sprawled out on the trail waiting for me. All I did was put my hands in the water and splashed some on my arms. I didn't want to delay Truckin' by taking off my shoes... The water was a perfect temperature... not too cold. We passed by many nice running streams that day, but did we stop to soak our feet? No... Which was better? Taking our time along the trail, or getting to the shelter earlier and resting there? We got to No Business Knob shelter, up a hill, at 4:40 and I did not feel like singing! But I did find Skip sitting under a tree, reading!He informed us that the water source for the shelter was 0.2 miles back-all the way down the hill. "You mean that measly, dried-up source we passed?" Skip added that there was no water between there and Erwin. "There's no water path behind the shelter?" I asked. "No," Skip said, "But what is back there, are two Giant Hemlock trees that are worth checking out. Just be careful of all the toilet paper back there..." So down we went, back to the standing water, regretting our decision not to stop at the rushing water sources to either collect water or soak our feet (at least that's what I was thinking). Back up the hill, we slowly trudged with our water... We checked out the Hemlocks and then made dinner. Truckin' and I planned on camping a couple more miles down the trail and Skip decided to join us. As we got all packed up, two section hikers came along and asked about water. "None here, but what I can offer you is two beautiful giant hemlocks..." Gnarwal then came in after a 20 mile day, worn-out and ready to rest. He wasn't excited about our plan to move on, but reluctantly joined us. While I reattached my bite valve, Skip took the lead, followed by Gnarwal, me, and Truckin'. Onward we went in search of a campsite. Nothing was appearing... We were on a ridge. After a couple of miles, we came to a dirt road and made a group decision to move on. At 7:23, we found our spot on Temple Hill! Skip got a fire going, Gnarwal ate, and I set up my hammock. The sun set and we were happy to be less than 3 miles from Erwin, where we planned to breakfast at the Huddle House! Breakfast in town- now that was something to look forward to!!