Date: 2005-03-23
From: Siler Bald Shelter (NC)

To: Cold Spring Shelter (NC)
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: light rain

Day 123/23Start: Siler Bald ShelterFinish: Cold Spring ShelterMiles: 12.1Weather: cloudy a.m., sun p.m.Today began rather sunny then quickly became cloudy before I even exited my tarp. The weather acted indecisive for a couple of hours while we hung around the shelter. Finally, the sun broke through and claimed the victory. So, we began hiking. It is a good thing we waited too so that we could see the beautiful view from Siler Bald...amazing. After quite a bit of climbing we came to the second spectacular view of the day, Wayah Bald. The view from Wayah was a 270-degree panoramic of the NC And GA mountains. It was amazing to see the distance to Albert Mountain, which we had crossed only a couple days before. The rest of the day consisted of pretty easy hiking and I arrived at the shelter in time to claim a spot and to dry out my tarp. Jason and Trey (who named themselves Mighty Mouse and Five Spot, respectively) continued on in order to make it to their car on time. It was fun hiking with you guys. We will pull into the NOC tomorrow for a resupply stop and a night¢s stay with all the accoutrements.Anniversary Recollection: The intermittently rainy morning found me literally pacing around the now empty shelter, looking to the sky in disgust each time the clouds broke only to converge once again into a uniform mass of grey. Maybe part of my morning anxiety had to do with the social pressure of providing Jason and Trey, my friends from the "outside", with an enjoyable time; but I honestly feel like a good bit of the nervousness came from an internal sense of obligation to move ever north. This sense of urgency is common among hikers early on in their long distance voyage, but I am convinced that the happiest hikers have without regret dispelled such feelings. After several months of hiking, I came to realize that a large part of enjoying this hike was to move along leisurely (certainly a relative term), realizing that there is no need to rush to Maine. I realized that there is no point in reaching Maine if I haven¢t enjoyed myself in the thirteen states that precede it.It was on this day that I met one of the most interesting characters to date. Fokker Fokkerstein was a German law student studying for a semester in Iowa. With a few weeks to kill before he met up with his uncle to do some U.S. traveling, Fokker decided to hike from Springer through the Smokies. It is easy for an ignorant American to blame Fokker¢s odd attire on the fact that he is a foreigner, but Germany is as western and as modern as America ¢ so this guy was just a nut. Fokker hiked in what appeared to be dress shoes with a little extra tread on the soles. He wore a circa 1953 brown leather motorcycle jacket that draped down almost to his knees, corduroy knickers (of which he had an extra pair), knee-high socks, and a corduroy beret. He carried on his back a WWII standard issue rucksack, in his left hand a full-size acoustic guitar in a waterproof case and, in his right hand, a full-sized black umbrella. He drank from a two liter water bottle that he always kept full and he hiked as many miles per day as everyone around him. And the strange thing is that he convincingly claimed to be an avid hiker in Germay.Fokker arrived at the shelter to a sarcastically warm greeting from everyone who had already made his acquaintance. With the same sarcastic tone, someone asked Fokker if he would play his guitar for us tonight. Fokker replied with an air of coolness that befitted his leather jacket "But, of course." Then he added, "But I only know German folk songs." Fokker proceeded to play German folk songs for the otherwise busy crowd for quite a while, providing between each song a brief explanation of the song¢s meaning to those who were listening most intently. And then, as the fire was dying and most everyone had retired to their sleeping bags, Fokker began playing, out of the quiet of the night, the opening cords to Led Zepplin¢s "Stairway to Heaven". It was the most amazing of moments.