Date: 2003-05-17
From: Beauty Spot

To: Greasy Creek Gap
Miles today: 12.6

Erin says:Craig and I woke up in fog - just as when we went to bed. We also woke up late. I felt bad because I had one of those mornings where I really did want to get up, but my body felt rooted to my sleeping mat. Just plain tuckered out. Our whole hiking day felt really slow.Part of the slowness was that upon waking and checking out Beauty Spot Gap near our tentsite, we realized there was no water to fill our bladders or use to make coffee. Craig described the water source as "a muddy puddle filled with bug eggs" or something close to that. So we hiked for a few miles to Deep Gap in order to get water. And we wanted coffee... which basically meant that I had to unpack my entire bag in order to unearth the stove and mugmates. It was just that kind of slow day. But we were both psyched for the caffeine. The caffeine helped to pull our tired bodies over what seemed like endless steep up and down climbs. We both had tinges of "I don't feel like hiking today" mode. The highlight of our day was our climb up Unaka Mountain. The summit of the mountain looked and smelled like Maine. We were met by tall red spruce trees in groves all around us and pine needles littering the ground. The fog stayed all day in the higher elevations giving the forest an eery sort of glow. The trees were wet with the dew, and green moss wove its way over the tree roots. But the smell of the pine and moist earth was incredible! We trudged on all afternoon over steep knobs that seemed worse than their profiles on our elevation map. In the late afternoon we came to a great meadow filled with yellow wildflowers. The sun came out for a few moments casting a beautiful glow around us. Craig went on ahead and I rested in the meadow for a little while soaking it all in. It came to me that it was early evening (7 pm)on a Saturday night - that most of our friends at home were probably getting ready for an evening out on the town at the bar or out to dinner, etc. And here I was in the middle of a meadow full of little yellow flowers with miles still to walk and then dinner to make. It just made me feel very removed from "normal" life for a moment!Catching up to Craig after my break was no easy task. I had to haul up the last few hills. And I found myself singing outloud again at the top of my lungs to ward off any forest creatures that might be lurking near the trail. My songs took on a bear theme: the Gummy Bears song from the cartoon TV show, "Bears Drive Me Crazy" lifted from Britney Spears, and some sort of boy-band spin-off that went something like "all you bears can't you see, can't you see... how your maulings affect our reality". You get the picture. My bear songs worked and I came upon Craig at our campsite at Greasy Creek Gap. He said he'd just seen 2 deer and a wild turkey.I set up the tent while Craig went off down an old jeep road blue-blaze to search for water. Apparently he had to listen for the water because the sun was on its way down and water was nowhere in sight on the side trail. After bushwacking some 20 yards or so, he was successful. Dinner was a feast of chicken and alfredo noodles/sauce with chicken added and great dehydrated veggies courtesy of my mom. (thanks!) (Craig says: Yes thanks!)   As soon as the water began to boil on the stove for dinner, it started to rain. Really hard.Craig quickly threw all of his gear into the tent, and we both tossed on our rain jacket and pants. Meanwhile I valiently tried to get our meal stirred together and into the pot cozy to cook without it getting too cold or wet. Then we both hovered in the tent and waited for the rain to let up or our food to be ready. The rain didn't let up.We ate our meal under the semi-rain cover of a tree in our campsite. It is the first time that we have been rained on during dinner time. After shoveling in our hot meal, we decided to wait to clean our pots/mugs until the morning because of the rain. Craig quickly hung the foodbags and we clamored into the tent. It is tough to get into the tent when your rain clothes are really wet - trying not to get the inside of the tent wet while rain is driving down upon you as you unzip the tent flap. We squeezed onto our mats and peeled off our wet clothes tossing them into a garbage bag for the night that Craig has inside his vestibule. Then we flipped our mats over so that the wet side we'd sat on would now be on the floor of the tent and not on us. What a process! As I sit in the tent now with the rain splatting down upon us, I hope I don't have to get up tonight to pee. I want to stay dry and cozy. Craig and I were thinking we'd have a nip of Scotch tonight, but we're both so exhausted that we're just going to go to bed.