Date: 2005-04-21
From: Pass Mountain Shelter

To: Gravel Spings Hut
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: light rain

(A continuation of the record of my AT section hike of the SNP in August, 2003.)Day seven was kind of a long day. It was also one of the prettiest sections of the trail I had seen in the park. The treadway was less rocky than the day before, and the norther section of the park has fewer major climbs than the southern and middle sections. One of the highlights of my day was the stop for lunch at the Elk Wallow Wayside restaurant. It was my first chance to "eat out" since I started my hike and I took full advantage of the opportunity, wolfing down a cheeseburger, fries, an ice cream soda, and I don't know whattall. I took my food outside and ate in the yard at a picnic table under a shade tree. It was a beautiful setting and I think I could have stayed there all day quite happily. Unfortunately, I had 13 miles to hike, so I only wasted about an hour and a half before pushing on. I was conscious as I hiked that this was my next to last day, and my mind was already beginning to focus on all that I had learned and what I had gained from the experience. My feet were also beginning to feel better as the various wounds began to heal, and my legs had definitely gotten stronger. I got into Gravel Springs Shelter around 4 pm, and as this was my last night on the trail I was determined to have a campfire. When I got there, the shelter was already occupied by a father and two of his grown sons who were out for a there day section hike. They were a bit of a strange group, the two boys being from different mothers, and totally different from each other. One was quite polite, cheerful and helpful in getting their stuff settled and their dinner cooked, the other one rather sullen, unhelpful, and generaly quite lazy. They had obviously camped out before, but I was appalled at some of their habits. Just to site one example, they cooked way too much food, and then offered to share it with me. I had already started cooking my own dinner, however, so I declined. The day then told the sullen kid to take the food and find a place to get rid of it. Having seen amble evidence that day of bears in the area, and having read in the shelter register about a bear incident on the trail a couple of days before, I mentioned to them that the rules say you should either pack out your gargage or, at a minimum, bury it at least 8 inches deep. After some grumbling, they sort of agreed, but the dad then sent the sullen kid off to attend to the burying process. As you might expect, the kid came back WAY too soon to have done much more than dump the contents of the pan onto the ground, but there wasn't much I could do about it. After dinner I spent some time collecting dry firewood for my fire, not an easy task as it had rained every day for the past week, but I managed to get enough kindling to get things started. Unfortunately, all I had for fuel wood was one rather long tree branch that someone else had already dragged up to the fire pit. All I could do is to set up the fire so that the end of the branch caught fire, and then, every so often, shove more of the branch into the fire. I kept this up for some time, after the other occupants of the shelter had gone to bed, but I justified my disturbing their sleep with the thought that the fire might at least keep the bears away that their food wastes might bring in the direction of the shelter. Since it was a single level sleeping area, and they had already occupied most of that, I had set up my tent just outside the shelter. After burning as much of the log as I could, I eventually gave up and crawled into my tent for the night. Once again, it rained overnight, but once again I was dry and comfortable, and slept well.Stay tuned,Longhual