Date: 2003-04-25
From: CAMPCREEK BALD (NORTH SPRING)

To: HURRICANE GAP
Miles today: 13.3

We got here to Allen gap on Tenn. Hwy 70 at 9:46 this morning. We are on the TN/NC border. Hikes north and south out of here follow the border. Hiked south back up to Hurricane gap , where we left our mini van this morning. The hike was steeply up thru some rain for the first 10 minutes, a very light rain, then no more rain for the remainder of the day. It was a very steep climb, up ,up up and hot. We had to strip down, taking off raingear, then fleece. It took a long time to get on top, you need to get to the shelter to be fully on top. We got to Hoe gap first, that took an hour, then another hour to the Spring Mt. Shelter. An then another hour to reach our car at Hurricane gap. A total of three hours hiking. We saw 28 thru hikers going northbound, only talked to a few of them. Undetermined Name at Sumac, and at the shelter we met a Scotish guy and his daughter. We met Wrong Way Brown a nurse from SIU Edwardsville, living in KC now and unemployed. That describes the morning hike. We are having lunch on hwy 70 at 1:26 pm.During lunch a hiker (Cruiser) comes thru looking for a soda, hes hiking with Indigo. We gave them sodas since it¢s a half mile down the road to a possibly open store. We will see them later today as we are hiking Southbound from Campcreek Bald.Now we are on Campcreek Bald at 2:09, with fantastic views, and slightly chilly. We are heading down off the top to find the Appalachian Trail. The Trail does not cross where you park, but goes around the side of the Mountain. Hopefully it is 6.4 miles to the car at Allen Gap.We found the Trail. It took only 7 minutes from the car. So we are on the trail at Bearwallow Gap southbound, and it should be about 6.5 miles to the car. At 2:20 we come to a sign saying White Rock Cliffs, with some views of the mts. Around you. We did not bring the camera today because of the early rain. We just saw a beautiful Crested Dwarf Iris with different colors, Purple with Orange tips. No picture. Just passed the first Thru hiker. Cindy's question of the day is ¢ have we passed you once this morning?¢ He says ¢no¢. But we probably did. We passed the turnoff trail to the bald Radio Towers at 2;47 , so it could be we have added an extra mile to our afternoon hike, by getting on the AT an extra mile North. We are going uphill now over another ridge, and then all downhill. Its been an hour now and we come to a crossing trail called Pounding Mill. It may also come down from the Radio tower. We are starting to pass hikers who say, ¢ we have seen you already today¢. So that¢s fun. We are heading down a gentle sloop now, with an old road coming in. It is cool, foggy and cloudy with no sun right now. We were lucky to get the the good views earlier today. OK we are headed on.Its 3:30 on the trail, and we are going down, down, down. We were on a flat ridge trail for a while, with a bunch of boundary markers on the trail defining the Tenn.- N Carolina border. Cindy has one toe hurting. Going downhill is hurting one toe, but other then that, we are fine. We haven¢t really stopped this afternoon. We need to stop soon for some water. Its 3:46 and we arrive at Little Laurel shelter. Its 3;55 and we are leaving the shelter right away. We were told that its 4.9 miles to hwy 70 and our car, which means its going to be a late hike. Gotta go now. There is a big group of hikers at the shelter, but we had little time to talk much. Met Carnify Bob from Scotland and his daughter Verity, Dimple Rock and Wrong Way Brown the nurse from KC. Its turned into a gorgeous sunny day now. We think we have passed all the hikers from this morning. Probably not. We have 2.9 miles to go, possibly, since we didn¢t bring the data book for ref points. Its 4:57PM. We are having a good time, but the feet want to quit, but that¢s not allowed until we get there. We have crossed a gravel road here at 5:25PM and 1.9 miles to go. We go up on the other side of the road, and its still a beautiful day, There was a chance of rain in the forecast according to the hikers. Maybe we will get to the car without getting wet. Hope so. We were lucky enough to met Jerry Bowser on the trail (Groundhog), an enthusiastic 65 year old gentleman Northbounder who knows Howard Hughes personally. He started the trail on March 31 totally green with a 100 lb pack, and he has learned a lot since then. Now he has all new lightweight equipment and trying to get to Maine, and make a success out of his life, and get rich by selling a book about this hike and many other stories he told us about his life. Cindy promised to buy his book when it got published, or else he was going to tell all the stories to us, right there on the trail. ¢Green and 65¢ is the working title. Now its really late. 5:54 PM and we are behind schedule.At 6:25 we are out to Hwy 70 and our car. End of a long day with a lot of downhill. April 25 after hiking, We left Tenn. Hwy 70 and drove all the way to Erwin, Tenn. We ended up staying at the Super 8 Motel. We called and ordered pizza from the famous Rivers Edge Resturant. We drove out there to eat the pizza but they forgot to put the pizza in the oven. So that took an extra 20 minutes but we had free turkey vegetable soup while we waited.