Date: 2005-04-04
From: Walasi-Yu

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I got up at 5:45 this morning. I wanted to get my laundry done but I'm waiting for them to open. In the meantime, the showers were open, I found some antibacterial soap so I went in to take a shower. I feel like I lost a few pounds with just the dirt I got off me. Man, I was smelling bad! The gameplan for today is to get my laundry done. There's a couple of little things I want to buy in the store when they open. I'm waiting for Eddie and Rob to wake up and get up here. I dont know what they want to do they might want to leave immediately, or maybe, I can talk them into going somewhere for breakfast which I wouldn't mind. The gameplan for today is to get up and get rolling and get out of here by 10 o'clock, and maybe get in about 10 miles, get some milage in. Get the legs rolling, keep them building up slowly, I guess. When Eddie got up he did his cooking thing, I watched him for a while. He was still at his tent, I had already packed all my stuff up. Then I got back up to the hostel which was about 200 yards from where we pitched tents to get the laundry soap and change for the washer and the dryer. I wanted to be the first one in to beat the hoards of people who would be coming in with everyone wanting a shower and to do their laundry.I walked into the store and got myself a microwave cheeseburger, a banana. a coke, a coffee, and an orange juice for breakfast. I sat around talking to a couple of people who were starting to get up. One gal who section hiked from Amicalola Falls to Walasi-Yu yesterday. She logged about 24 miles which I guess you can do when you can get home to try to recover. I wouldn't have tried that. We did 16 miles and that was pretty stupid as it was. It's a beutiful day to hike today!! The sun is out, there's a slight haze in the sky and it's 63 degrees. I'm down to my shirt, feeling really good. At Walasi-Yu ,I did some gear change, I had my bump box in Rob's truck, so I sent some stuff home. He slept in his truck last night in the parking lot.I got rid of my Possum-down hat, it wasn't really working the way I wanted it to. I threw my rain shorts in there. I can't really see using them again anytime soon. I was a little shocked when we walked into Neels Gap on Sunday night, the first thing I did was to throw my pack on the scale, and it weighed in at 19 pounds, which was what I expected. After I resupplied, I weighed it and I almost went into shock because it now weighed 32 pounds. I thought it would slow me down, but surprisingly I didn't even feel the difference in weight. I felt generally good. The pants that I wore here, I washed with some waterproofing and they were just wonderful! These two days with precipitation they never even got wet. Water just ran off them, they only place they really got wet was where I was sweating. I think I'll be OK without the rain-pants for the time being. I got a footprint for my HUBBA tent. I think Im going to experiment with using just the footprint and the fly. There's alot more room in there. At some point I got a net to sleep under, that I might send away for, it's pretty comfortable sleeping under this without the body of the tent.The hike out of Walsi-Yu is basically about 800 feet in elevation climb,in about mile and a half or so. I actually felt good going uphill, compared to last night going up Blood Mountain, where I was just dead beat and feeling sick. I have to learn to listen to myself and I should know by now when Ive pushed it too hard and just stop. Eddie and Rob left at about 9 o'clock this morning. Eddie had a class to teach today at 5 o'clock today, Im sure he'll make it on time.I'm glad they came up to hike with me, I had a really good time, and it's always good to see friends. At the same time, I'm also glad that they only hiked with me for 3 days because now I can get down to the business ofdoing what I have to do. There were three gals in sundresses, and a middle aged man out for a day hike. One of the women has a purse on her back, looks like she has lunch in the purse. They had pieces of PVC they are using for hiking sticks and it looks like they're having a blast. It's easy to understand why, it's a magnificent day to hike.A bad thing for me to do is to hike uphill when Im tired, it seems to drain me completely.   An even worse thing is to hike downhill when I'm tired, then I start getting sloppy and my legs go in different places. M y knees are swollen and sore this morning. They're not horrible, but they are acting up because of the hike downhill last night. I took some Bextra this morning just to be safe. Anyway, now that Im hiking myself, I can concentrate on getting in shape. There's a fine line in letting the Trail get you in shape and letting it beat you up. Particularly, I'm concentrating on not trying to lean on my poles too much and to focus on working on the muscles that it takes to slow me going downhill. I think if I'm going to make it all the way to Maine this time, I'm going to have to build those muscles up to protect the knees, and that's what I'm doing. The uphills, I'm taking as SLOW as it takes, if that's a mile an hour or a mile and a half and hour, that's what I'm doing. I'm figuring I'll just start going faster at some point.I'm sitting here on a log at an overlook, it's just magnificent! The blue haze from the mountains is dropping down from all the greenhouse gases. It's beautiful. The landscape is 'dead of winter' still, there's not a leaf on any trees, theres a few weeds growing here and there, and a few patches of grass on the edge of the trail. Some of these plants Eddie told me yesterday are called Carolina Roses are popping out all over the place. Other than that, everything else is dead as a doornail.I expect if I hike at a decent speed I'll stay ahead of spring until I get into central Virginia, thats what happened last time. One day I'll wake up and suddenly there's leaves on all the trees. Right now that's not the case.I'm headed to Hiawassee, it's about a 3 day hike. I'm told that the weather forecast calls for 2 good days, then it's going to start raining again. I don't mind walking to the hostel in the rain as long as it's one day. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping my luck holds out.I skipped Whitley Gap Shelter, mainly because the shelter was 1.2 miles off the Trail and to get to the water source was another 3/10 of a mile, so to stay at that shelter was an extra 3 miles all together. The next shelter was just 4.1 miles, so I figured I'd spend the extra hour and a half stay at the next shelter and thats what I did. I got into Low Gap Shelter with a pretty good group of people. I got there early and ate and set up my tent.   I experimented with setting up the fly without setting up the body, with just the footprint, and it doesn't really work out for me. I don't think I'm going to end up doing that. I'm probably going to end up keeping the footprint, it's kind of handy to lay out and throw all my things out on it, instead of putting the ground.I also talked to Winton, the owner of Walasi-Yu, he was telling me that on Saturday, alot of people walked out of the snow into Neels Gap and just gave up and quit right there. I guess it's because they don't research what they are getting into here. One guy paid the $15 to stay there, at Neels Gap, and just walked out of there completely. He left all his gear, backpack and everything under the bed and just left. Im assuming that it's going to be a while before he hikes again.I went to bed at 8:30, I had a pretty good day. It was a great hiking day. I really enjoyed myself.