Date: 2005-04-06
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Miles hiked today : 15.4I woke up at 7:30 a.m. this morning, ate breakfast, filtered water, packed up and was on the trail at 9:00 a.m.The heat was cranked up today to the high 70s and I thought about taking an early break when I saw a sign for trail magic for thru-hikers passing by on April 6th & 7th. The sign was rather vague and only said to head 300 yards East at the road. Yardsale and I headed down the road and didn't see any signs directing us where to go. While standing by a long, uphill winding driveway, we heard some voices above us and decided to walk up the driveway. I noticed that one of the trees had ceramic pieces forming a face on it, which was rather curious. We continued up the driveway and around the corner, saw several backpacks in the yard. It appeared that we'd come to the correct place.Other hikers advised us to take off our boots before going into the house, which was a beautiful log cabin. Once inside, we were greeted by Hercules and his wife, Fal (short for "Free At Last"), who had thru-hiked n 1999. We were asked to sit at the table with the others and were served soup, nacho chips with cheese, fruit, cold beverages, and dessert. After eating what was offered, my desset choice was apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and when it was made known that I could have a second dessert, I had a brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with a maraschino cherry.After the meal, I sat in a rocking chair on the porch for a bit, which was very relaxing. Before leaving, I gave Fal and Hercules my card and they asked me to send a picture of myself on Katahdin. That's the second request in as many days. I was back on the trail at 12:00 p.m. and was surprised to see that I'd been there for 1.5 hours. Time flies when you're having fun.The face I saw on the tree was one of several and were put there by Fal and Hercules. I saw three others on my way back to the trail. On another note, when I'd seen the trail magic sign specically state April 6th and 7th, I'd thought to myself, how lucky am I? It turns out that Fal and Hercules do trail magic everyday, but change the dates on the printed sign so that hikers feel lucky when they come across it. Well, they tricked me. I covered another 4.9 miles to Little Laurel Shelter, arriving at 2:15 p.m. It was so hot that I decided to take another break to rest, eat a snack, and filter more water. I didn't get moving again until 3:45 p.m. and spent 50 minutes climbing a very steep incline up Camp Creek Bald, gaining 980 feet of elevation. There was a 0.4 mile roundtrip to the summit, which had a firetower, though I decided to bypass it, as I still had 5.5 miles to cover.The next hour was spent on viewless, gentle ups and downs, after which I found myself walking on a highly exposed ridge with tremendous views to both sides. Just before the ridge walk, there were 2 short side trails I took to overlooks at White Rock Clifs and Blackstack Cliffs. The best viewpoint was actually on the ridge walk around 4,500 feet and allowed me to see how flat the Tennessee valley was. On the opposite side of the valley, I was able to count 6 layers of mountains. Despite the high winds and large rocks that I had to traverse, I tried to complete the ridge walk quickly. There were dark clouds forming and I didn't want to get caught in the rain on an exposed ridge. I feel sorry for anybody who has to cross tomorrow, as it's sure to be a tricky crossing. There was actually a blue-blazed alternate bad weather route that skips the ridgewalk, but I wouldn't have wanted to detour from the AT.The ridge walk eventually ended and I arrived at Jerry Cabin Shelter at 7:25 p.m. I put too much water in my cookpot for dinner, so I set up my tent while it simmered and ate while composing the bulk of this entry. The wind tonight is very strong and quite loud. The forecast for tomorrow is thunderstorms, though I hope the weather isn't bad enough to prevent me from doing a full day of hiking.Bedtime at 9:45 p.m.