Date: 2015-03-26
From: Betty Creek Gap, just before Albert Mt.

To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 12.2
Weather: light rain

Good Morning All, Today I got up early about 5:45am. It seems that this particular troop of Boy Scouts has a rule that whenever they hike they get up cook, pack up and leave early. Did I say 5:30am? Anyway I got up and had a good hiker meal for breakfast consisting of mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, dehydraded chicken pieces, hot chocolate, and a snickers bar. Weird? It tasted delicious to me. Four of us, Bison, Andrew, Day Late and myself began about 7:00 or so and hiked up about a mile or so towards Albert Mt. when we heard an engine noise in the woods. About 5 minutes late we came up a camper parked in a clearing whose owner had a campfire going with hit coffee and snacks set up so we stopped for a few minutes and enjoyed his trail magic offerings before we proceeded on. About a mile on we began our ascent up Albert Mt. Our campsite we at an elevation of about 4300 feet and the top of Albert is listed at 5250 feet. While the first part of the ascent was steep, it is the last quarter mile or so that is extremely steep at about a 60 degree angle, or at least it felt like it. I would call it a boulder scramble because at times we had to forego hiking poles and just use our hands to pull ourselves over the next higher rock in our path. At 7:30am the moss and algae on the rocks were very slippery and twice I had to get on all fours to climb. We summitted Albert about 8:30 or so. There is a very nice (and high) fire tower that you can climb to see the views all over the South Franklin area valleys near Otto. I never climbed it. I'm not a fire tower climber, just to warn you now, all of my photos of said objects will be from the bottom. It was rainy and foggy all morning that there were no views to be seen anyway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I rested a few minutes and proceeded alone down the trail while my fellow hikers enjoyed the view from the top. About 11:30am or so I reached Rock Gap (near Standing Indian Campground and Wallace Gap) where I met "Tobasco" and his dog (no name) who was from the Asheville area. He had driven over to set up the back of his pickup truck with trail magic consisting of honeybuns, chips and softdrinks. I ate one bun, had a Mountain Dew and probably because of the caffiene, hike the last 3 miles over the next mountain into Winding Stair Gap at exactly 2:10pm. Now the best part... Judi had met me to take me back to Franklin and had surprised me with her own trailmagic consisting of both sweet and savory offerings, including lemonade, cokes, and cake. Yum Yum. I thanked her and asked if we could head to town instead to go have Mexican food instead. She didn't mind but told me that she had dinner ready for me at home. I told her that was great, but first we went to the mexican restaurant where I ate a complete dinner and then headed home where I ate another complete dinner. I've included a picture of something she made for me. I'm going to stay here a couple of days to take part in Hiker Fool Bash 2015 this weekend, to resupply, and to do laundry and dry things out. Everything I carry smells pretty bad, so bad infact that Judi rolled down the car windows all the way home to keep from being overcome and nauseated. We hikers don't smell that way to each other. I wonder why?