Date: 2004-05-03
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center

To: Locust Cove Gap
Miles today: 10.5

The Nantahala Outdoor Center is quite a place. It is a large Kayaking training facility, where people who have never kayaked before can go and experience it for a few hours or days and where experienced neo-professionals can train for the Olympics. The set-up and operations are quite impressive. I can also attest that the food is also impressive, having thoroughly enjoyed a Steak dinner last night and a hash and cheese omelet this morning for breakfast. Before heading towards the Chow Hall last night, I did my laundry and dried everything in my possession before treating myself to a hot 30 minute shower -- ahhhh, the simple pleasures of life.Weather-wise, most of today was disappointing; mostly gray and colder with limited visibility. There were even a few snow flurries in the air while I sat on the top of Swim Bald having lunch and freezing. The high-point of the morning was taking a 10 minute break to watch a beautiful bright red bird with black wings, flit around a nearby tree nibbling at things on leaves. If anyone knows what kind of a bird that is, please let me know in my guest book... you will earn "bragging rights" and dubbed an "Official Bumpo Bird Brain!" Since the visibility and the sight-seeing wasn¢t much, and being well rested, I focused on the challenge at hand and cranked out 7 miles, gaining 3,000 feet in just under 3 hours. I reached Cheoah Bald at just around 2:30 pm and lingered long enough to take in the spectacular views before heading on. Cheoah is the first ¢real Bald¢ I have been on (although I understand there are others up ahead that are even more impressive as ¢Balds¢ go). For some reasons unknown to Biologists and/or Historians, the tops of many of the large mountains in this area were completely tree-less at the time there were being ¢discovered¢ by ex-Europeans. Whether they were cleared by early Indians for some reason or affected by some strange blight, apparently nobody knows for sure. Much of Cheoah Bald has now grown over with trees and rhododendrons, but parts of it are still bald¢kind of like, a well receded hair-line (hmmm¢¦ look who¢s talking here) Anyway it was quite remarkable and afforded terrific views in all directions.Around 4:30 pm, I passed through Locust Cove Gap and after traveling another quarter of a mile before deciding that I to turn around and go back. It was a lovely spot and there was no reason for me to go any further for the day. Locust Cove is a low, flat saddle only 20 to 30 yards wide between two knolls several hundred feet above it, which afforded the Gap great shelter from the wind that had been picking up all day. The trees in the Gap are quite tall and sparse and the ground beneath them is cleared of leaves. A spring is located nearby and I have chosen a perfect tent spot in front of a massive rhododendron towards the back of the Cove to pitch my tent. I had already made a fire-pit and collected as much dry (at least damp) wood, fetched fresh water, and strung up my rope for my bear-bag (aka ¢Miss Piggy¢) when two other hikers -¢ ¢Screaming Steve¢ and ¢Spur¢ -¢ arrived just in time to afford me some dinner conversation.It¢s now almost 10 o¢clock and the camp-fire is starting to burn low. The skies cleared just before sunset and now a full moon has risen over the knoll to the south. It is cold enough that I can see my breath and hear ¢pops¢ amongst the streaming crackle of the remaining logs on the fire as they char into embers. Otherwise, there¢s not a sound to be heard. Life is very good. (And right now, so is some sleep.)