Date: 2006-04-20
From: Beauty Spot

To: Clyde Smith Shelter
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: overcast clouds

BEAUTY SPOT TO CLYDE SMITH SHELTER. 14.6 MILES. TRASH 101 (yes that's right--one hundred and one scraps of trash)In the darkness, Slick B, 42 and I had settled down and set up our tents about 1:30am. We camped on a flat surface but it wasn't quite the Beauty Spot summit.So after waking up at 6:00, I found myself packing up as quickly as possible to reach the summit for some sunrise pictures.The sunrise itself proved to be average, but the views off to the right were breathtaking. A thick layer of fog had filled in all the valleys and gaps of the distant mountains and laid there like a cotton blanket. As excited as I was to take pictures, upon reaching the summit I found myself horrified by all the trash that was everywhere. Beauty Spot of course had an access road for the town of Erwin to drive up, so it seemed to be a popular place to camp and/ or party. However, this was just ridiculous. Before I'd left the grassy bald, I'd picked up 30 pieces of trash--22 of which were cigarette butts. I was totally impressed by the wooded summit of Unaka Mountain (5180') where the tall pines were spread out so much that a trail wasn't actually needed, and if one didn't watch out for white blazes, it was easy enough to step through the wrong set of trees and wander off in the wrong direction. Pine needles were everywhere, creating a brown base color. But the bright green moss was spreading like a disease all over the dark trunks of trees up to two and three feet high. Took a break at Cherry Gap Shelter (I had already reached 53 pieces of trash on the day) where I met two girls I'd never seen before named Swiss Miss and Holly. Swiss Miss was a tall blonde who looked like she could have just stepped out of Switzerland, and Holly was a brunette who was still unnamed. "Where's the water source?" Swiss Miss asked me, a few minutes after she'd joined me at the shelter. "Just down that hill," I said, pointing. "It's a good one--there's a pipe." (PVC or sometimes metallic pipes had been installed in some of the more slowly flowing water-sources around shelters--thus making the source much more clean and accessible)."What about a privy?"I shook my head. "Somebody told me there aren't any more privies til Damascus.""Ah man..."It was moments like these that the one of my old favorites, the B. Boys found their way into my mind: "Professor, what's another word for hiker treasure...well, I think it privy, privy, p-p-p-privy...that's what it is."The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful, though the trash never seemed to slow. When I arrived at the shelter I was surprised to find Natty-Boh lying on the top left bunk. He had left Erwin several hours ahead of our foursome and here we had already caught up with him. However he soon informed me that the hiker bug had claimed him as one of his victims. He'd come down with it the day before and had hiked only a short distance to get here. He was quite pale. Eventually that evening, the shelter would also house Dinosaur, Hellbender, 42, Slick B, Swiss Miss, and Railroad and Critter--a couple I'd met on my third night on the trail, way back at Blue Mountain Shelter. Dufresne, Mudflap and Daisy would tent it outside.An average day on a trail, with little means of boredom.Random Register Entry: "How about marking the trail once in awhile? I've been out of cigarettes for two days now so the gnats are all over me. In my apt. in the city, I get no bugs. Each day is a new ordeal. If these no-teeth clown-towns would get an airport or at least some cell phone service, I'd be in Maine tomorrow with a lobster in my maw." --Able Jack