Date: 2013-04-17
From: Rich Mountain Fire Tower

To: Jones Meadow
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: light rain

It was a pleasant night at the tenting area just north of the Rich Mountain Fire Tower, but rain and lightning around 5:00 AM delayed my Wednesday, April 17 2013, start a bit. I discovered that the knee brace had caused abrasion on my right thigh and calf, so I wrapped my old elastic-free Ace bandage around the leg first. I was back on the AT, headed north, at 8:15 AM, finding a cool, windy, and very overcast morning that looked like a good day for hiking. Half an hour later I crossed Hurricane Gap Road, and soon encountered the first of several gravestones along the trail (Rex Paulford, 1920-1983); I wondered how one got to be buried here! Maybe there¢s no grave here at all. Another one, Jaclyn Mae Kelly-Morris, who died in 1990, came along at 9:00 AM.        The walking was pleasant: a nice packed-dirt path with few roots or rocks, and a cool light breeze with very overcast sky. I noted that this was a much better trail, for walking, than the AT of my first few weeks! Shortly before 10:00 AM I donned my rain gear, and ten minutes later arrived at Spring Mountain Shelter. Another hiker soon arrived; he had a snack, and I had my lunch. There was a large fresh jar of peanut butter there ¢ my lunch was two large tortillas slathered with it. The young man and I talked briefly about the norovirus that was reported to be severe between Hot Springs and Erwin, with advice to avoid shelters and privies, but we risked the brief break. Someone had left other food, too; my companion took some instant oatmeal, and I took about 6 packets that he left. The register showed that Salsa and Twix were here yesterday, with plans to camp last night just beyond the shelter.        At 11:45 I passed through Deep Gap and formulated an ETA of 1:10 PM to a road (NC 208); at 12:30, in some light rain, I changed the ETA to 1:05... and crossed the highway exactly then. Some ads for Hemlock Hollow Hostel were tempting, but I passed it by; I never exactly identified Log Cabin Drive anyway, and don¢t think the dirt road I crossed at 2:30 (with a private home to the right) was it.        Plugging along, I was getting a bit tired by 3:30 PM but kept rolling at my 40-minute-mile pace and arrived at the Little Laurel Shelter at 4:40. After a brief chat with the handful of men staying there that night, and fetching a liter of water, I headed out at 5:10 PM, with only 2.1 miles to my day¢s destination, a camping area at Jones Meadow.        Werdigo, you¢ve really got to learn to look at your maps! Much of those two miles was a climb of 1,130¢, gradual but continuous and tiring, that took me to the fire tower¢s side trail at 6:15 PM. I welcomed the descent, glad that climb was behind me, and began looking for Jones Meadow. At 6:50 I collected 3L of water from a trailside spring, marked with a blue ¢W¢ sign, and headed left up a blue-marked side trail. At 7:05 I came out on a road, with a big grassy field across it, and thought that maybe that¢s Jones Meadow. There was nobody else around, and I didn¢t like the looks of it, so I backtracked to the AT and erected my tarp just west of the trail, behind a fallen tree, just north of the intersection with the blue trail. I heard voices back along the AT, probably at the spring, but didn¢t investigate. It had been a tiring day, but it was a pleasant night, warm and clear with a sky of stars. I still wonder where Jones Meadow was.