Date: 2005-04-08
From: Plum Orchard Shelter

To: Standing Indian Shelter
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light rain

Last night was the first night on the trail that I did not sleep in the tent. I slept in the shelter and I think I'm going back to the tent. There weren't that many people in the shelter, it can hold about 36-40 people.This shelter is a really nice shelter, it's a triple decker. The top level has windows in it. There were only 12 people and there was plenty of room. We had a really good time. I got in there pretty quickly last night. When I got back from doing my log last night, Rocky was trying to start a fire. I helped him collect wood and we tried to start a fire. As we started doing it, it started raining again. At first, all we saw was the sky lighting up, then a loud clap of thunder followed by a whole bunch more. One must have hit a tree because there was a ball of orange where it hit. It was pretty beautiful but loud.The reason I won't be sleeping in the shelter is my snoring problem, and so does everyone else. I took an antihistamine thinking it would help out. I thought it did, but the first thing Saxy Lady said to me this morning was that I snored loud enough to bring down the building. I was kept awake by a symphony of snorers that seemed like they were taking turns, but that's what you expect in the shelter.To top it all off, I was thinking Eric and his girlfriend were having sex, there was about 30 minutes of them moving around and I had to put my earplugs in to keep from waking up all the time. Eric told me later on that that's not what they were doing, so I don't know what was going on.I ended up waking up at 6:30. Normally I wake up well before dawn. I was out walking by 8 o'clock. I had eaten some of my grits, they were totally unappealing. I don't know why. I had a whole bag full of 'Au Ma and Au Pa' homemade beef jerky. For some reason I found it delicious, I could not stop eating it. I'm thinking that my body must be craving something in the jerky and rejecting something in the grits. It must be the protein. I'm going to try to skip the grits and the cereals and not make breakfast in the mornings. I'll pack candy bars and beef jerky in my fanny pack. My appetite has skyrocketed, I hadn't expected it to happen so soon. Normally, I would have thought it would be another month before it happened, but, Iv'e just been eating out of control. I had all the beef jerky and the candy bars and it was all gone pretty early this morning.As I left the shelter I could hear grouse and woodpeckers. The woods were recovering from the rain and everything seemed to be coming alive. I walked out of the shelter and through the fog it was like walking through a lake at about 3300 feet.I crossed the North Carolina border! At 10 o'clock I hit Bly Gap. I was setting up the digital camera on the self-timer to take a picture of myself swinging from the trees, and Chris, Rocky's friend, took the picture for me and then took off. I put my pack on and started walking too.30 paces after you walk past the Bly Gap Tree, you cross the North Carolina/Georgia border, North Carolina welcomes you like a slap in the face. You are immediately going uphill on a 15-20 degree incline. God, it seemed like forever. The elevation went from 3400-4700 feet and never went down below 4200, it was like bouncing like a yo-yo for the rest of the day.It felt like a different state right off the bat. The air felt thinner and colder. I was intending to go 17 miles today. I stopped at the first shelter to eat. A couple of people popped in and out. I took off after the. I was feeling really good up to that point. Standing Indian Mountain is the first mile-high mountain on the Appalachian Trail. I guess I'll be doing that tomorrow morning. I hear there's a 360 degree view up there.Anyway, at the bottom of Standing Indian is Deep Gap. Standing down there were 3 locals hiking with coolers wih the intention of going to the next shelter. They were complaining that it was hard to carry, it was too heavy. I commented on what the were carrying. They said it was beer and wine. I managed to 'Yogi' a beer, a Budweiser. 'Yogi', like Yogi the bear, is a term for letting people give you food or drink without asking, or else it would be begging. It's an art to let them know you want it without asking. I stuck the can in my fanny pack.I must have just had it by that time because the walk up the shelter wasn't that bad of an incline. I kept hitting rocks and pebbles. I decided at 3 o'clock to just hang out here most of the other people started walking in. Eric and his girlfriend, and Saxy Lady. Mr. Fusion and Guitar Kelly were already here. Ray, who I thought would be 2 days ahead of me by now, walked in. And Albert and a few other people walked in. Guitar Kelly played a really good version of Whiskey In A Jar, a folk version.As long as I was here that early, I took some time to do some gear repair. A piece of netting on my pack started to tear away so I sewed that up. A piece of the fly on my tent had started to rip, so I glued and siliconed that back. The straps on my poles are about 12 inches too long, so I cut about 8 inches off of them.Eric was talking about hanging the food bag in the shelter again, last night I ran him off when he tried to do that. He hung his food bag right over my head. I told him he couldn't do that. I showed him how to do it outside. I told him about the 'P.C.T' method. I showed him the method of hanging a bear bag. Albert came along and I showed them how it's done. We went back inside and cooked up a storm, everyone was eating and the rain came down again. It started raining like hell. It looked like it was going to keep raining, and there's no longer any bear cables. The bear cables to hang your food stopped at the North Carolina border, so you have to hang your bag from a tree. There's some technique involved in that. Apparently, none of these people know how to do that. The rest of them were out there trying to do it, and they didn't know how. It was pretty comical.So, I'm now in a different state. Tomorrow if I have a good day, I'll be crossing the 100 mile mark. Tomorrow, I'll be going over the first mountain, a mile over sea level on the AT. I hope the weather is better. We have been actually quite lucky, when it has rained hard, it's usually after we have finished hiking.Another day on the Trail. Iv'e turned into a huge walking, eating and sleeping machine again.I get up, I eat, I walk, I eat, I stop, I eat, I walk some more, keep eating, stop walking and go to sleep. I'm standing on top of Standing Indian Mountain. My altimeter reads 5470, which is within 34 feet of the official height of Standing Indian of 5498. There's this one nice, flat, rocky area on top here with a magnificent view of the Northwest. I just took some pictures. It's pretty cool. I can see at least 70 miles out. It's kind of scary looking out towards the north here, thinking that in a few days I'm going to be past where I can see here.You're really looking down at all the mountains and valleys from here, almost like an airplane. Most of them are full of fog still from the morning. A beautiful sight. The sky hasn't a cloud now. The sun is bright, I had to pull out my sunglasses. It's magnificent here. I have to do some work on my backpack before I start back down. I'm going to sit here and smoke a cigar.Pretty quick walk up here. I started at 8:00 and got here at 8:45 and it was a nice grade uphill to the top, so I made a mile and a half in 45 minutes without even trying. I was the first one going Northbound so, of course, I broke the spiderweb trail. It seems that they always catch me along the bridge on my nose, my eyelashes and my open mouth. The first one hiking always gets that. I should stay in bed a little longer. Oh man, what a view.I'm going to try to make some good miles today, it's a long downhill from here. I get to go over Albert mountain later this afternoon too, which is the second mountain. It's a crazy one, you have to use your hands, it's so steep it's practically vertical in some places. At some places it's a rock scrable going up. Alot of fun from what I remember last time.There's a fire tower up top. It was so cold that I didn't go up last time, maybe I'll go up this time.I'm under the fire tower at Albert Mountain and all I can say is, "Holy Sh*t Batman, what a freakin' climb that was!!"I had to stop about every 20 steps, if you can call them steps. Alot of it was having to grab the rocks up above and the branches and whatever to just pull yourself up. It's not that big of a deal climbing up the nose of the mountain but it's damned near 400 feet of vertical in places. Awesome view here. Last time I was here it was freezing cold and the wind blowing through and today it's nice. Looking up at the top of the fire tower I'm thinking I'd like to go up there but I'm just too damned tired. My ass is whipped after that climb. So I'm just gonna sit here and recover, then haul ass. I would have been here quicker, probably before 2 o'clock, except at the base of the climb up the nose some guys had set up trail magic. It turned out to be Barry, the manager of Rainbow Springs Camp Grounds when I went through there in 2003. I stayed and talked to him for a bit. About 2 miles back on the Trail, I had run into a gal who's name was Selina that looked like she was in poor shape. She told me that she started in February and that she had just gotten back on the Trail again with new gear and her feet were hurting. I talked with her for a while then I tried to haul ass to try to get over Albert Mountain. I ran into a guy with just poles shooting down the Trail to come get her and her pack. It turned out to be the other guy that was helping Barry with the trail magic. His trail name was Forever North, he said to just call him North. He says he's got about 6,000 miles on his legs. I walked up to the top here, and Chris, who I have given the trail name Three Ball, his head is almost bald and the red hair is starting to come up now. I believe the 3 ball is the red one in pool. I think he likes the name, he might end up sticking with it. He was up here with Grump and another hiker I have never met before. Barry had some black beans and yellow rice and homemade salsa and some Cokes here. I ate some of that stuff and talked with everyone for awhile. Three Ball said that he was screwed because it was Saturday and the post office closes at Franklin at 4, and it was 2 o'clock at the time. Now he can't get his mail drop until Monday, so now he's trying to figure out what he's going to do. He might hang out in shelters, or go into town and get a hotel room or whatever. I'm going to actually try to make a 20 mile day today. It's 3 o'clock, and I've usually be stopping around this time every day with plenty of time left over, and I've got plenty of energy left. I've done about 14 so far, and I think I'm just going to keep walking for another 3 hours or so, to see if I can get over the 100 mile mark on the Trail, and see if I can't put it over the first 20 mile mark. We shall see.I'm actually at the shelter just before Wallace Gap at Rock Gap Shelter but I figured just to make it official I walked the extra half mile to the road and back again to log in the first 20 mile day. It was a great day. I actually seriously considered going on. I got here at about 5:30. I figured going on would be kind of dumb, but I could have done 30 miles today. I was feeling great when I got here, I think the black beans and rice helped out.Just 4 of us are here tonight. I was thinking Grump would walk in because he walks all day and all night, but he hasn't made it yet, maybe he will in a while. It's 9:00 pm right now. There's an older man named Foot Notes here, and Albert, who walked in a little bit after I did, and Chris who is now officially Three Ball. It was a good hiking day. Tomorrow I'm thinking of doing 15 miles to a water source. The first shelter is too close, the next one is 20 milkes away. I don't know if I want to do two 20 mile days. It looks like it's going to be a harder walk tomorrow than today. I'm thinking 15 miles, grab some water, and walk until I find a flat enough spot to pitch a tent. Albert seems to want to do the same thing so we might end up doing it together. Looks like I will be making time, at the rate I'm going to meet Eddie to hike the Smokies.I'm having this crazy idea that if I pack just enough food for the day and hydrate really well and carry no water I can make the run from NOC all the way to Fontana Dam in one day. It's about 31 miles, but if I'm packing light I might be crazy enough to try it so I can rest one day while waiting for Eddie to get into the Smokies, rather than have to go right into the Smokies with no rest.I dont know, I have to think about it. I think I can do it if the weather is good.That's it.