Date: 2020-06-04
From: Springer Mountain shelter

To: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Nice sleeping weather. Last night we were buzzed by biting gnats at dinner but they left us alone in the shelter loft. Ethan was up a lot listening to strange sounds in the otherwise still forest. Some oatmeal perked us up.  Our Sawyer squeeze filters are pretty clogged. It takes great effort to produce a trickle of water. The Sawyer water bags have small seam leaks so applying great pressure caused more water loss than we were filtering. So we just screwed the filters on water bottles, filled them with creek water, and filtered as we drank. Still produces only a trickle, so we spent the day trying to get enough to drink. We'll have to unclog or replace these once we reach Neel Gap, hopefully tomorrow.It was a rocky mile descent to the gravel lot at Big Stamp Gap. Few people around before 9 am. Nice trail following Stover Creek with clean, cold water to fill up.At Stover Creek Shelter a couple was late getting packed up. A domesticated gray tabby cat was slinking around, looking to be petted and probably fed. The couple thought the cat had followed some hikers there but no one claimed it. Ethan dubbed it Comrade Cat.Leaving the shelter Ethan decided on Big E as his trail name. His friends gave him that thanks to being tall for his age. We passed a fungus at least a foot wide next to the trail. Big E dubbed it Humongous Fungus (see photos section).Rhododendron forest followed as we hiked above Stover Creek, then tall hemlocks, fields of ferns, mountain laurel in bloom, occasional wildflowers like Indian paintbrush. A goldfinch bounced away as I approached. The woods were alive with bird calls. A tiny black and yellow snake froze by the side of the trail until slithering away. Large brown millipedes and smaller black and yellow centipedes occasionally crossed our path. No mammals sighted.We stopped at Long Creek Falls to cool off and rest. A large Boulder had graffiti carved in it with the date 1877. Some old carvings looked like Spaniards or Indians might have left it. At Hawk Mountain Shelter we stopped for a lunch of cheddar and salami sandwiches. Four guys were hanging out near the shelter making a fire. It was their first trip on the AT and they opted to stay put this morning when the forecast called for thunderstorms. But by midday the forecast had been pushed off til evening and by then the guys had decided it was too late to get going. We left around 2pm planning to go 7 miles to the next shelter.Several mountains stood in our way however. They, along with humidity and difficulty getting water out of our bottles, sapped our strength. Sassafras was the toughest, a 700 foot ascent. In cooler weather it would have been more manageable. Still, we made it, even surviving the morale hit of a false summit. Big E and I cried our barbaric Yawps over the rooftops of the world when we made the summit.The next few miles became a bit of a trudge. With no water sources we had no choice but to get to Justus Creek at least. Climbing over the much smaller Justus Mountain took some out of us, and the long downhill wore on us. By the time we reached the creek Big E said everything below his waist was hurting. My feet were feeling the pounding as well. So after filling our bottles we soaked our feet in the icy water. A couple and a father and daughter were camping nearby, just tooling around the area. The soaking really helped our sore feet. We decided to press on another mile and a half to Gooch Mountain Shelter.Dinner at Gooch Mountain shelter was ramen with tuna and a side of jerky. Protein is critical. A Massachusetts couple here are working on finishing sectioning the AT, which they started 24 years ago. A thirty-something Louisianan with a long beard with a white streak is thinking of heading to Maine, if it's open when he gets there. There's also a couple from California hiking as far as they can get. The girl was furloughed from state government until at least October. She had a bad review of the Duplex tent I just bought. Said she took a bath in it when it rained one night and returned it. Hopefully I got a working one!Storms still haven't rolled in by 9. But we are both exhausted. We'll decide in the morning if we're hiking another 15 miles to Neel Gap.