Date: 2008-04-16
From: Allen Gap

To: Big Butt
Miles today: 11.8

Cowboy camp. Check. No sudden middle of the night rain storms. No bear sniffing around our sleeping bags (darn!). No creepy visitors in the evening hours. I am actually kind of taken to this cowboy camping phenomena. Oh, and our bear bagging techniques are slowly being perfected. Let me first clarify for those that need it: as there are bears in the vicinity of most places we stay (ya know, the woods...), when bear lines or bear boxes are not provided we are to set up our own bear line (a rope over a particular tree limb) and hoist our food and any other items that have a scent to them up the tree. This way, the bear has to climb UP the tree to get to our stuff rather than simply intrude on our campsite. The best method for deterring bear intrusion is to camp, cook, and bear bag in a triangular formation. You don't want to cook where you camp because the lingering scents... and the rest is relatively self explanatory. So, back to OUR technique: walk approximately 20 feet in some direction (preferably not up hill or down hill) and place our bags ever so carefully at the base of a distinctive looking tree. I figure this way the bags are close enough to get a picture if they do come to camp; however, far enough away that they may never pay attention to us. Rather impressive if I could say so myself. Ok, may just be lazy on our part... but, in my defense, MY bear bag is made of kevlar and, therefore, immune to attacks from forest creatures. So, after staring at a clear sky full of stars all night (amazing!) and an easy morning packing up and prepping ourselves for the day ahead... we make our way down the trail towards our first intended stop: the fire tower. We have had many great trips up fire towers in the past. Today, though, our luck ran out. We climbed and climbed and then took a side trail that climbed some more... JUST so we could get this amazing view from the fire tower that would make us forget about every step of our ascent -- even the extra ones -- only to find the tower occupied with equipment with not so friendly looking barbed wire all around. Well. Shucks. We did snap a few photos before we heard workers in the distance and decided they would probably be just as friendly as the barbed wire -- on to the Blackstack Cliffs. Despite our poor luck in the morning, the latter part of the day would not leave us disappointed. At the Blackstack Cliffs we ran into a large group of hikers from two hiking clubs located in and around Erwin, TN (which just so happens to be where we are heading right now). They told us about the treacherous trail ahead and advised us to take the bad weather trail, instead. We found out that Dirt and company had made their way past the group earlier in the morning. AND, one particular hiker offered to open his home to us when we arrived in Erwin on Saturday. Mr. Thompson and his fellow hikers were exceptionally kind! So... back to the trail because before we could accept such a marvelous Trail Magic offer we had to make it to Erwin first. BUT, which trail to take? Well, my pride could take no other trail than the one with the white blazes. The boulder climb was challenging and a lot of fun -- the snow and ice covering the boulders made the climb challenging and a lot MORE fun :0)   After all that business we stopped by the next shelter to cook dinner and then continued on our way post dinner festivities. We missed catching up to Dirt by 30 minutes so we figured we would try to put in at least a few more miles before stopping. And, that we did. We climbed up to Big Butt (or very close to it... and no I do not know who named it) and literally, as we crested the mountain, I stopped to take a breather and looked over to the right and saw a beautiful view and to the right I saw the most perfect clearing for two sleeping bags -- OUR sleeping bags to be exact. I expressed my desire to not take another step -- and we did not. Cowboy camping is definitely my style. Oh, we are also sleeping on the 300 mile mark of the AT.