Date: 2014-05-19
From: Erwin TN

To: Grassy Ridge Bald
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

So "Ideas" got us back to the trail about 830 sunday morning, I ran into a few hikers at the hostel that I had hiked with at the start of the trail, after taking a few days off they caught up. So it was nice to see a few familiar faces. I headed over the Nolichucky River and railroad tracks and back into the woods I went. I made good time that day back on the trail, I guess I had so many carbs from the previous few days I was just ready to burn them. We crossed over Beautiful Spot Gap which was well deserving of its name. Finally got to camp and got all set up with my delicious pasta side and salmon packet for dinner and washed it all down with a snickers and freshly filtered mountain water!!! You may read that with sarcasam but it actually isnt all that bad! Had an intersting night around the campfire though, I met a few new hikers "Bio-Hazard, Old Bones and Sparky" Sparky is an English guy in his mid 40's who showed us a video of when he was in the smokies and a black bear did a bluff charge at him and almost made him pee his pants. After that Old Bones took over the story telling. He was an old navy veteran and he loved his stories. My favorite being about how he met his wife, it was a random blind date on new years eve, he had his dancing shoes on and apparently sweep her off her feet because a short 4 months later they were enegaged and sadly after 51 years of marriage she passed. But he was the happiest and oldest guy ive met at 84 years old!!!!! It really made me miss rachel even more than I usually do. But in a short (VERY LONG) 11 days I will get to see her! The next day started off well, made good time out of camp and I am finally in a good routine and even with a hot breakfast am out usually within an hour. Made it to Little Rock Knob, which is not very little, but I ran into a group of trail workers called Hard Core and they clear trails, reroute the trail and just do general maintanince. Well after having lunch with them I was inspired to help for about 30 minutes which turned into 90 minutes and a few sore hands later. But I was glad I could do my little bit to help out when I could. However that led me to be way behind schedule with still 11+ miles to go it was almost 3pm. So now that I was tired, off I went up and down the hills through Hughes Gap and up the other side. However after getting up Roan Mountain and heading to the shelter water was not near by so I figured I would just walk to the next campsite at Grassy Ridge Bald. That was a mistake, I went down into Carvers Gap, I missed the turn for the trail so walked out of my way only to turn around and head back up the trail finally getting to the balds where I thought the Grassy Ridge Balds were and they just never came, I got to the other side and the trail turned down into the woods and an arrow pointed up the hill further saying .5 miles to Grassy Ridge Bald. So I decided to stay on the trail and hike to the next campsite, as the sun began to set and the wind started blowing, I ran out of water. So my feet are hurting as I am already over 20miles for the day, not to mention the manual labor I thought was a good idea and now I am thirsty and without water. Eventually I found water and set up camp as the sun actually set on me while pitching my tent. But I was ready for bed by the time I got in my sleeping bag. Intersting day to say the least! I forgot to mention I did see a beautiful sunset from the balds thought, so I guess it was worth it. Happy Trails