Date: 2010-04-12
From: Ground Hog Creek Shelter

To: Walnut Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: clear sky

I¢m lying in the tent at Walnut Mountain Shelter. There¢s a nice tenting area along the ridge just past the shelter. Pacer, Tomato and Michigan are tented here, among others.It¢s a little after 8:00 PM. Friar Tuck and I left Ground Hog Creek Shelter this morning at 7:00 AM. We had intended to start an hour earlier, but I didn¢t get up right away when the alarm went off at five, it was pitch black out and I had pushed some watch buttons in the night when I was trying to make it light up, so I didn¢t trust the time it said. I got in my sleeping bag at 7:00 and fell right asleep. I slept 10 hours which I really needed. I¢d been a little light on sleep the fast few days.I was feeling tired hiking wise this morning and lagged behind Friar Tuck. He is a little faster than me with his new lighter pack. It was a little hot and I was also processing some stuff. Things I talked about with Dawn yesterday, etc. I really wanted to talk to Ross about what I experienced in the car, but now time, no privacy, no cell signal¢¦ oh, well. Guess I just have to deal on my own.As of last night or this morning (I forget) Friar Tuck has decided that he would hike to Ervin another 80 miles and then go home via a bus from Johnson City. I looked at him this morning and said, ¢You know we¢re heading back into Hot springs. You could get into Ashville and take the bus from there. If you need to go home from Erwin do you really need to go home now?¢ He said that yes, he did. I told him about my feeling in the car last night ¢ that I should stay in the car and go to Asheville. He said he had been feeling the same thing. I asked him when and he said after we had stopped for directions and he had talked to his Dad. He said he had been trying to suppress it. Wow! That explains a lot. I¢ve been picking up on Friar Tuck¢s ambivalence about going home. He really wanted to continue his hike, but his parents need him.I called the outfitter to find out if Friar Tuck could get a bus out of Asheville. It was Daniel on the phone and he even looked up the schedule for me. I put in calls to Lula, Laurie and Dawn to see if one of them could pick up Friar Tuck Tuesday night. I got voicemail for all of them.We had a beautiful day hiking. This sunny weather is supposed to hold for a while. Spent half an hour up on Max Patch. Hiked the really nice section along the stream. We stopped at Roaring Branch Shelter to take our boots off and I read the log. Someone warned of the funky water source at Walnut Mountain Shelter, which I remembered after I read it ¢ it¢s quite a ways from the shelter. So we watered up before we got there.I was struggling the last mile or so to the shelter which was uphill. If I¢d been by myself I might have stopped a little sooner at a nice campsite with a bench but Friar Tuck needed to go a little farther to meet Hot Springs tomorrow and I wanted to have the option so I pushed I up the hill.We camped on the ridge just past the shelter and it was a nice spot. Pacer, Tomato and Michigan were there. Tomato let me use his phone and I called Lula. It was hard to tell if the message I left went through or not. I was too tired to cook and I didn¢t want to sit around doing it because it was getting cold so I ate some of Lula¢s dehydrated sausages and some rice crackers. Then I turned in. I started this journal entry but only wrote a little bit before I was ready to go to sleep. So¢¦right now I am sitting in the diner in Hot springs finishing it up. It¢s Wednesday April 14th and I ate breakfast and am drinking decaf coffee, and the rest will have to wait for another day.