Date: 2010-04-08
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

So, River,Fable and I left the NOC on April 5th at 11am. It was 6.9 miles to Sassafrass Gap shelter. It was up, but not as steep as I thought it would be. It was HOT! Cabana Boy and Dutch Tape left two hours earlier than us. When we got to the shelter we were beat up. Cabana Boy and Dutch Tape were already there and getting settled. We hung out while we cooked dinner. After, we went to our tents. It got dark. An owl was over our tents and making noise and scared the you know what out of me. They all started making owl noises outside my tent for about an hour. Very funny guys!A beautiful night to sleep under the stars. Very restful.April 6thWe woke up broke camp and were on our way by 8:15am. It was another hot day. I hiked over some more balds with amazing views. I was hiking through Locust Cove Gap and happened to look up. All I saw was a hue of red. It looked like someone took red paint on a brush and flicked it across the sky to the tops of the trees. These are red buds on white oak. Really pretty. Spring is popping.  I hiked over alot of rock and boulder sections. Usually when you come to this there is alot of moss and fern and streams. So relaxing. It reminds me of a cd with nature sounds on it. I met up with River and Fable and some other hikers for lunch at Stecoah Gap. We lounged around for about an hour. We looked for a water source, but couldn't find it. I had about a liter if water. Our remaining miles for the day was 2.4. About 3/4 of a mile up the trail River yells" hey Rach I'm out if water". This last mountain of the day was straight up. Your nose and knees were basically kissing the dirt. Dehydration is a problem out here with the weather hot and no folliage coverage. You are expending alot of energy and salt. Fable dashed up the trail to the shelter to get water. River and I took our time to the crest. This mountain was evil. We renamed it Bitch Stack Mountain. We vited it off the trail. I made her drink from my water even though she was resistant. We made it to the top of the mountain and here comes Fable beard blowing in the wind to save us with water. We have never been so happy to see water. We drank our fill. We made it into Brown Fork Gap Shelter. Sabbath Keeper was there. Cabana Boy, Dutch Tape, Grinder, Tiller Man came in to the shelter. We started cooking dinner when we smelled something burning. My alcohol stove started the shelter on fire. Don't worry it was only a small one. Needless to say they were not impressed with my cooking skills. Thanks alot Cabana Boy! It is your design. On the up side, they have decided they would cook for me until I get something new. It gives them one more thing to rag on me about. So, this was my first night sleeping in the shelter. It wasn't so bad and there were no mice. It was nice to not have to pack up my tent in the morning.April 7thRiver woke me 6am. We broke camp and started on our 13 mile day to Fontana Dam. It was going to be another hot one. We were going to end up at 1700 feet. This means one thing, knee pain. The one thing we had plenty of is water. We'll never make that mistake again. We had lunch at Cable Gap Shelter. We got into Fontana Dam at 4pm. The first thing we saw was a coke machine. Someone wrote broken on it. Fable said he didn't care if he had to break into it he was going to get a coke. Luckily, it worked. He hugged the machine. We stayed at the Fontana Village Resort. Not a bad deal at 59$ a night. Usually, hikers share a room to cut expenses.Now, to the story of the day. River was scanning the tv and came across what else but the Red Sox Yankees game. They saw the sports finatic Rachel. It wasn't pretty. They didn't get the whole Red Sox Yankees thing. River asked " if it says Red Sox why is there a B on the hat" OH MY GOD!!! Sabbath Keeper was afraid. He was laughing so hard he projectiled his cough drop across the room. And then noone could find it. They all had their head lamps on crawling on the floor. It was my turn to laugh. They finally found it under the bed. After sports finatic Rachel they will never see me in the same light again.Go Sox!!!City Slicker