Date: 2003-05-11
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Jerry Cabin Shelter, man.
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: moderate rain

Erin says:We woke today and the sky was grey. Craig nudged me (more than once) and said, "Uh, Erin, we better get up and get moving. Looks like it is going to rain." And of course I mumbled something and turned over. Probably 15 minutes later I finally got up the strength to pry my body out of the sleeping bag, turn over onto all fours and squeeze out of the side tent opening to stagger as I pulled on my Barbie pink flipflops. Getting out of the tent first thing in the morning when stiff as a board is quite a challenge. Craig grabbed our food bags and got water. I got dressed and cleared all of my stuff out of the tent. Craig broke the tent down quickly and packed it up as I boiled water for our coffee. Sure enough, as soon as Craig packed the tent away, it started to rain. Really, really hard. Torrential downpour. I flew down the trail to the shelter with my bag (we tented about .1 north of the shelter). I pulled on my rain jacket and raced back up to the tent site to grab our coffee mugs and the stove and help Craig grab the last of our stuff. So, in a matter of 5 minutes we went from being dry and content to sopping wet huddling at the shelter. But we saved the tent! It got packed away in Craig's bag nice and dry! To a hiker, that means everything. A wet tent and rainfly is so heavy! And who wants to sleep in a wet tent? Not us.So, we spent the next 2 hours chillin' inside the shelter with John (Johnny Llama) and Bear Magnet. At least we had hot coffee to drink. Our shorts were so wet from all the racing around in the rain. We watched John eat cold Spanish rice (leftovers from the night before). Then he boiled water in the same pot - no cleaning - to make coffee. It was entertaining. Bear Magnet so kindly gave us half of his rope so that we could have rope to hang our foodbags since none of the shelters in this stretch have bear cables. Thank you to Bear Magnet for your generosity!!! A big weight off our shoulders since it will be 4-5 days before we make it to Erwin, TN and can buy more rope. The rain started to subside and I decided to head out, even though I was still wet. Craig gave me the usual head start. Rain and cooler weather seems to make for easier hiking for me. I got to Allen Gap (3.7 miles) in 1 hour and 20 minutes. Not bad at all! Along the way I saw a grouse - it was right beside the trail and it startled me as it flew off. They make a lot of noise when you come upon them. With my adrenaline pumping, I then came upon 2 deer right to the left of the trail just a few minutes later. They ran off too because we are hiking through "game lands" right now. I got to Allen Gap and the road there was actually paved and had signs. I saw a sign about 300 ft. to the right up the road that said "gas" so I walked towards it thinking there might be a mini-mart with food. Plus there were a few hikers standing around. I was wrong. The gas station was shut down, the building abandoned. However, there was trail magic waiting for me!!! A wonderful guy named Brody was hanging out with a trunk full of food and drinks for thru-hikers! He thru-hiked in 2001 and was in the area to visit his Mom for Mother's Day. (Happy Mother's Day!!!!) Turns out, she was out of town, so he decided to hang out by the trail all day to give out freebies to hikers. He even had folding chairs to chill out on. So I ate some Doritos and had a cheese danish. Yum. Brody told me that he'd seen many bears in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia or "The Shenny's" as he called them. He also saw 5 bears in New Jersey. There was another section hiker hanging out with us too at Allen Gap. He had a dog named Abby who looked so cold and tired from all the hiking and the rain. This guy (can't remember his name) actually tented next to us last night. He said that he could hear us laughing from inside our tent and that he hadn't heard a couple enjoying themselves that much in a long time. What a nice thing to say! His comments made my day. I finally pulled myself away from Allen Gap about an hour later. Brody practically begged me to take some food and beers! with me, so I packed 2 Natty Lights and took an apple for Craig. I hoped that Craig would see Brody up the road when he got to the gap so that he could get some trail magic too! I started off again and hadn't climbed too far when I could hear Brody and the hiker with the dog shouting Craig's trail name. "Onion... Onion... hey Onion... come here!" So I dropped my pack and backtracked to meet up with Craig. Craig was lounging in a folding chair eating an apple. Brody gave Craig his phone number and offered to pick us up from Erwin to drive us to Trail Days in Damascus. Craig hung out for a while longer and I started hiking again. What a great, long morning break! I had overheard some hikers talking about how AT maintainers think that there shouldn't be trail magic, that hikers begin to expect it. I NEVER expect trail magic, but sometimes I hope for it when we cross a road. It never seems to happen, but this time we lucked out! Yeah!So, I set off hiking again. No more animal sightings, unless you count the toad in the middle of the trail. My pack felt heavier with beers in my side pockets and the apple for Craig for later. But hey, Craig had carried beers for us the day before. I could do my part. Craig caught up to me not too long after and we hiked until Little Laurel Shelter. I was tired from the climb out of the gap. Craig volunteered to make our early hot dinner while I rested on my mat in the sun. We ate ramen with hot sauce and ended up taking a 3-hour break. It was nice! I napped and Craig read. We packed up and headed out of the shelter around 6pm. Our break was wonderful because our shorts had a chance to dry out from the morning rain. We hiked up Cabin Creek Bald - a huge climb climb. Turns out there was no bald at all, just a side trail to a fire tower. Very disappointing!   However, the weather was balmy and the setting sun gave us gorgeous golden yellow colors through the trees. Great early evening hiking. We passed Blackstack Cliffs, a series of cliffs along the trail that gave us great views. The azaleas are blooming too. We could see the town lights of Greenville below us as it started to get darker. We pulled into Jerry Cabin Shelter around 9:05pm with the help of the moon to guide us. It was almost completely dark but the moon made it possible to hike without headlamps. Everyone at the shelter was already asleep. We found a grassy tent spot, and I set up the tent while Craig found a branch to hang our food. Then we relaxed outside the tent on Craig's mat and drank our beers. Natural Light has never tasted so good. At first I couldn't believe we were drinking Natty, but just a touch of beer took away our foot pain. We watched the clouds pass over the bright moon. The sky was beautiful with big puffy cloud formations moving fast. We had a great time just hanging out. I think tonight was one of my favorite nights at a shelter so far.