Date: 2006-03-26
From: Jerry's Cabin

To: Sam's Gap
Miles today: 17.1

Day three of the one day snow storm. It is still snowing, but the sun is trying to peek through, and it does not snow constantly. Woke up to the sound of Tank getting ready to take off. Tank is always the first one out of camp. The plan today was to work as a five man team to take turns at the front breaking up the nearly 12" of snow. Nothing worked that way. Tank left about an hour ahead, followed by me. After I hiked about an hour Grizzly came up behind me and we hiked the rest of the morning together, but we did not see Ron or Big Foot. The going was tough even following two guys. The first challenge was the 1000 ft. climb over Big Butt mountain. After that it was a quick lunch at Flint Mountain shelter. At the shelter Grizzly and I talked about our options and decided that we would push hard the rest of the day and get to Highway 26 and call Miss Janet. She runs a popular hostel in Erwin. That would be necessary because I was going to loose a day in this weather and would not have enough food to get me the last 24 miles to Erwin. From Erwin I could figure out what to do about the last stretch over Big Bald and Little Bald. With that plan laid Grizzly took off and I was right behind him. We did not wait for Big Foot or Ron and were off on our own. For the rest of the day I pushed to keep up with Grizzly, but I did not catch him until about 3:30, but about 2:00 I passed up Tank. In front of us was a 1600 foot climb and some other ups and downs. Toward the top of Hogback Ridge we encountered 2' drifts. At the top of the ridge we called Miss Janet and set up a meet time and were off down the mountain. She picked us up at 5:00. We had her drop us off at Pizza Hut for some salad and pizza. While Grizzly and I were eating and talking his cell phone rang and he answered "Nick Matis". The intesting thing was that a person named Nick Matis had contacted me on my guest book for this site and I had been trying to find him on the trail under his name QC Kid. I had not been able to find anything in the registers or from talking to other hikers. I asked him if he had a different trail name at one time and he told me it was QC Kid. Here I had been hiking with him for a whole day and did not know it. After pizza I got a ride to Miss Janet's house and was delighted to find Jolly Green Giant, superman, and firefly at the hostel. I thought I had seen the last of them and now they were all at the hostel. Scout was at the Holiday Inn with her parents and she was planning on staying the next night. I was sad to learn that Cedar Mo had a spider bite from a Recluse spider that had forced him off of the trail. It sounded pretty serious. I also met Wayfairer, and Mrs. Gorp for the first time. I also met Julianna from Chicago and her dog Thoreau. The legendary Miss Janet is a great lady. She loves to take care of thru hikers. Jolly Green Giant told me when he came out of the mountains at Sam's gap she "kidnapped him" and took him to church. There he got in on a potluck dinner after that. He had been there for several days. I should say something about the hostel operators. They are great people who do it for the love of the hikers. There certainly is no money in it for what they charge. Tonight I will shower and rest in a bed with sheets. All is good.