Date: 2015-05-03
From: Red Fork Road

To: clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: clear sky

I was so happy to wake up warm! It was only slightly cold out and no breeze. I packed up quickly then sat next to the remains of the fire in the rock ringed circle and ate my cereal. I watched the sun rise as I chewed.I headed out a little before my Florida buddies, now that I know why I'm so slow I want to get a jump on the day. I went up Unaka, a pretty tough little climb. The top is completely covered with spruce pines and the smell was heavenly. The temp. Dropped 10 degrees when I entered that forest. I had my eyes peeled for that pig the whole time. Didn't see it. This was a forest, like in a Disney movie. I thought the seven dwarfes might appear but they didn't. I did bump into some guys that I had last seen in the smokies. One of them was carrying a huge bag in his hand. I asked what it was and he said they were picking up trash from Georgia to Maine. These 3 young guys- early 20s- had picked up over 200 pounds of trash so far. They have a blog- packingitout.blogspot.com. One of them told me that they had participated in their fair share of debauchery in the past and now they wanted to make up for it. They would leave the trail if they saw a campsite and scour the whole area for trash. They even buried toilet paper. These kids deserve an award.Today's hike was like 10 hours of interval training. Up. Down. Up. Down. Steep up steep down. Not sustained, but staccato, so a rhythm never materialized. On the smoothest flattest possible trail, I tripped and took a flying face plant. Luckily, the top of my forehead, in the hairline. I laid in the dirt for a second and realized I was OK. I had forgotten all about the pig when suddenly- there it was. It had traveled quite a ways from where the southbound hiker had seen it. Caps, one of the trash guys, was walking away from it, not sure what it's intentions were. I walked over to it and petted it. Its tail wagged furiously, like a very happy dog. I poured out all of my Peanut m&ms and nuts and the pig happily ate it all up. Then we took turns posing with the pig. Poor thing. I hope it lives somewhere nearby and was not a pet dumped off because it got too big. I got to the shelter shortly after and set up my tent. I had to go .3 down- descent into hell to get my water. All of the hikers were whooped from this day. Sitting around the fire, eating and talking with hikers, up comes a little dog. She was slightly injured and nervous but obviously hungry. I gave her a steak stick and McGuyver gave her his soup. We pulled a couple of gigantic tics off of her. She had a tattered collar with spikes on it. As we were sitting around the fire, Stripes, a former Marine, told us about a dog in Iraq. He said dogs ran in packs and would sometimes attack as a pack. He was out on patrol with a couple of other guys and they encountered a large pack of dogs. The dogs were growling and snapping and preparing to attack when suddenly a smaller dog ran at them. She was ferocious and scared the other dogs away. They took her back to base and their unit adopted her. She was mangy and covered with scabs and they named her Herpes. The guys all took care of her. I meet so many interesting people on this journey. Other hikers joined the fire circle and everyone was brainstorming ways to get this poor pup off the mountain. I think McGuyver going to take her to the closest town tomorrow and bring her to a no-kill shelter. I was ready to sleep by 7:30. My dogs are barkin'!