Date: 2004-04-19
From: Buzzard Roost Ridge

To: Little Laurel Shelter
Miles today: 6.0
Weather: overcast clouds

8:20 PM Little Laurel shelterI got up as soon as it was light to hurry down to Allen Gap. The night had been fairly quiet. I heard a dog bark once and some coyotes whooping off in the distance. I think a deer or two came to browse a little, right outside my tent, right after dark and just before dawn. I never saw a deer, but I couldn¢t imagine anything else making that munching sound.I got to Allen Gap right after 8:00 AM and tied a bandana on a little branch at the parking spot and another one where the trail actually crosses the road. Then I got water and made my breakfast, all the while watching for a Jeep to pull into the parking area. About 9:30, I saw a Jeep start to go past, turn around and stop, so I went down to meet Drew. He was sitting at the wheel studying a map when he finally looked up and saw me. He hadn¢t even noticed the bandana or started to guess what it could mean. He was trying to decide whether he was really at Allen Gap and was just about to drive somewhere to ask somebody further directions. He had not completely understood Nikki¢s note and had gone to Hot Springs and had hiked up the Lovers Leap trail, where I was on Saturday afternoon. Finally, he realized he was not going to catch up with me going that direction and went back to his car. He asked someone in the coffee shop in Hot Springs about Allen Gap and so found his way to our meeting. Nikki¢s note clearly said "state line," but Drew had decided that state line included about 10 miles either side of the line.As it turned out, he arrived at the perfect time. I was just finishing washing my breakfast dishes. He offered to carry my pack, and I readily agreed so that we could cover more ground. He emptied his daypack, and I put my food bags in it. He had planned to leave his daypack in the car, but I didn¢t want to let him carry everything. We set off up the trail at a fast clip. We covered 4.9 miles in 2 hours with an elevation change from 2,234 to 3,300 feet. The casualty of that sharp change in routine was that I forgot my stick when I stopped halfway to Little Laurel shelter for necessary business (potty break). When I finally noticed that I didn¢t have my stick, I was not willing to stop the progress of our trek to go back for it. I hoped someone would notice it and bring it to the shelter. No such luck. But I didn¢t worry about it. I set up my tent, and as soon as I had written a note in the shelter register about my stick and my plans for the day, I got water, demonstrating my filter for Drew, who is in the market for a water purification system. We hiked to the top of Camp Creek Bald to see the view from the tower, an ordinary nice view of the mountains and the flatlands of Tennessee, nothing terribly special. The humming radio equipment near the tower and the razor wire rimming the platform of the tower were more remarkable, and remarkably forbidding. We then walked back to my tent, and I insisted Drew take some moleskin to put on his blisters. Obviously, he wore the wrong socks for racing around the AT.He took a grocery list from me, and he plans to meet me at Sams Cap on Thursday morning to carry my pack a little way again. I will try not to forget my stick next time. Drew started down the mountain at a fast jog, promising to look for my stick and bring it back to me. I never saw him coming back toward me, so after I had been walking down the trail for an hour, I knew he had not seen it. No one else coming up the trail had seen my stick. I reached the place where I had left the stick 1 hour and 20 minutes after I started toward Allen Gap from my tent. It took me another hour and 20 minutes to walk back to my tent with my stick. As tired as I was from my 12 mile day, I don¢t know how long it would have taken me to get back to my tent without the stick, but that is a moot point. I was not going to go back until I found my stick. I¢m still surprised that out of all the people who walked the trail that day, nobody saw my stick. I recognized it immediately. It seemed so forlorn, lying there waiting for me. The hardest part of my return up Little Laurel was that I had no more water for the last half mile and I had taken no snacks with me. When I got to the tent, I was extremely tired, thirsty, hot, and hungry, in that order of intensity. I guzzled some Tang with added salt first thing. It was like a miracle. I was immediately energized and ready to cook my dinner. I enjoyed my time with Drew. He is thoughtful and generous, even if he isn¢t very good at following clearly written instructions.