Date: 2004-05-27
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Overmountain shelter
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: light rain

A haiku...Fighting morning chillForty-four salamandersTried to warm up----------The storm continued throughout the night. We woke up at random points whenever the bottom fell out of the sky and rain made crashing thunder sound on the tin shelter roof directly over our heads.Then the sky got gradually lighter.Then Shoe, at 6 am or so heard something on his transistor radio which he felt obliged to loudly share with the sleeping shelterfolk: there'd been a tornado touch down around 80 miles from where we were.I wasn't surprised. The way the trees were bending in the sudden gales which brewed up... Or how the rain was so heavy that it was almost like a fog - impossible to see far. So, I wasn't impressed enough by Shoe's declaration to stay awake.--------------- Morning mists in the cool woods, moving slowly through the mountain evergreens and the rocks. It was a strangely beautiful morning, and the coolness in the air was actually heartening. We knew we had thousands of feet to climb, and some cool can keep the sweat at bay.--------------- Less than an hour into the hike, and up this rocky incline. And when the trail passed by a boulder at the mountain's edge there was nothing to see but smoky grey-white. We were up in the clouds.Then down on the ground before me, I see this bright orange salamander. Such a striking creature... Maybe two inches long. And moving so slowly. It wasn't scared of us. And I thought of the hikers behind us, and tried to shoo it off the path. It didn't seem too bothered by anything I did. It just sat there and lazily gyrated a bit. So, I lifted it and all the ground under it to the side of the trail."Wasn't he a cutie" we said, and maybe we said "aw" and then I saw another one. I called ahead to the Moxie in the mist to let her know. Then I saw another. And another. And yet another.Then Moxie spontaneously evolved the ability to be able to spot them as well. This was an impressive feat. Soon she was spotting the majority of the slow moving beasts.In around an hour, we had counted 44 of those neon orange bad boys.We later learened that these critters leave the water, learn to breath air and wander on the ground, only to return to the water later...--------------- So. We climbed a mountain today. We won't do a taller one til Mt. Washington... which is many states to the north.The climb was all foggy and primieval with ancient (3.5 billion years) mossy boulders and ridges.Soon we were at the misty top.Of course, there was a parkinglot up there for normal people. And paths. And a washroom.So, we loaded up our water containers, washed the dirty hands, and then sat down at a picnic table and looked at our lunch possibilities.Kraft dinner seemed to be the choice.We were yearning for sodas, but there wasn't a vending machine in sight. Then a picnicing family started to set up on the next table down. Moxie asked them if perhaps we could purchase some extra sodas from them. To our delight, they offered us bologna sandwiches, chips, juice, the works. After our climb, it was a delicious feast. The nice couple left us their leftover chips and bread and cheese, and they also gave us a phone number to use when we've hiked a couple days to the north. They said they could hook us up with a nice hot home-cooked meal. Very nice people.--------------- After leaving Roan Mtn, we crossed two nice balds. The first had a ridiculously well maintained path that led to fantasies of the trail being that way all the way to Maine. Of course it changed back to the rock and root-strewn twisty rude path it habitually is as soon as we were off the first bald.We had to chill out on some boulders for a while by one of the grassy hillls. The blackflies tried in vain to find some skin to attack. A baker's dozen of their crushed bodies around my legs must have scared the other flies away, because they were soon leaving us alone.And we trekked on.We had heard that the Overmountain shelter was worth the journey to. And it has been.It's a huge barn overlooking a green valley. The beauty of the scene is hard to put in words with my body winding down. It's time for sleep.We are going to have a nice view when we wake up in the morning.