Date: 2005-07-02
From: Newfound Gap

To: Peck's Corner Shelter
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: overcast clouds

After a two week hiatis, I'm back on the trail again.... Mick dropped me off at 10am at Newfound Gap and off I went. Hiked uphill 3 miles to Icewater Spring Shelter and enjoyed the still cold diet coke that Mick sent with me while I had lunch. This shelter has a beautiful easterly view and the stories of the sunrises are almost enough to keep me here, but it's still early and I must push on. My body is letting me know in no uncertain terms just how it feels about me hiking again. The first ones always to complain are my calves. They screamed at me for the first hour, then resigned themselves to the fact that, yes, the stupid woman is hiking again. A couple of hours past Icewater Springs, my knees took up the chorus, only they didn't scream, just sort of whined and complained. They acted much the same way as a three year old on a long car ride, annoying but ignorable. Eventually they settled into the inevitable, although they did make their complaints known every now and then. The last ones to chime in were my feet. Towards the end of the day, they got really angry and started yelling obscenities at me. "When the !##!! are you gonna stop!!" On my last rest stop, they took matters into their own 'hands' and went on strike. They acted more like stones instead of feet. I was having none of it and after a few hundred yards, they decided to behave.All in all, I'm quite pleased with the way this old body is performing. Other than soreness, there have been no major problems with my legs, knees, feet or back (thank goodness). Once I get rid of excess baggage, and I'm not talking about my backpack, this old bag of bones and muscle may just last me awhile yet. Back to the day, it was gorgeous!! Beautiful views everywhere you turned. The tourists were out in full force and I must have seen 50 hikers between Newfound Gap and Charlie's Bunion. That's a 4 mile hike one way and makes for a nice day hike. Charlie's Bunion is a huge rock that juts up from the side of the mountain. I'll have pictures up soon I hope. The story goes that two hikers, years and years ago, came upon the rock and one hiker remarked to the other, "Charlie, that looks just like the bunion on your foot." and the name stuck. The trail was much better today than I've been used to in the Smokies. So many people hike the trails, and with erosion from the rain, the trail is nothing more than a rut, sometimes as deep as my knee. Today it was nice and flat. At one point, when I neared 6000', I stepped inot a stand of old pine forest. It was something right out of the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and company entered the haunted forest. I half expected a sign telling me to go back. The floor was nothing but pine needles and ferns. Fallen trees and old dead logs were laying everywhere and everything was covered in a bright green moss. It smelled like Christmas but very eerie at the same time. I got to Peck's shelter a little after 8pm. There are three guys here from the middle-east on their first backpacking trip. They wanted to know where the garbage cans were located as they were getting ready to leave. They were a bit surprised when I told them they had to carry their garbage out. gI was exhausted when I got here. Filtered water, fixed dinner and went straight to bed.