Date: 2003-04-03
From: Winding Stair Gap / Fraklin, NC

To: Silar Bald Shelter
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: clear sky

I didn't journal yesterday because the zero just took it all out of me. :) I was exhausted at 10 last night and went straight to bed. Tuesday night we spent at the Haven Motel - a little dive in the center of town. I'd give it a glowing recommendation because the folks that run the place are super nice and helpful to hikers and the prices are reasonable. Jenny was so kind to drive us all over hell and creation a.k.a. northern Georgia and western North Carolina on our zero day. We were looking for a package that was supposed to be mailed to me in Wiley, GA at the outfitter there; it no longer exists. Where my package is, I have no clue. We also went to get mail in Hiawassee that Sprout discovered had been left behind at the post office. We did some other boring chores like grocery shopping and visiting outfitters looking for simple (yet unstocked) items like Aqua Mira and Esbit tablets. The outfitter in Highland, NC was by far the coolest. The Highland Hiker was great. Sprout got her pack adjusted and got a pair of socks. I bought a pair of gaiters in lieu of another pair of socks. I hope they'll help keep the ones I've got clean and dry. Dry being the most important of those two items.I also got my boots fixed at the cobbler in Franklin. He stitched the seam right up and wasn't even going to charge me. I bought some Mink Oil to help waterproof them even more. We ate lunch at the Gazebo, a nice little sandwich shop situated along a babbling creek. Sitting there, Sprout and I felt like we should have been pumping from. Later that evening we met up with Aunt Ronnie at Fortune House for Thai food. OHMYGOSH! It was delicious; I had Swimming Ramma - chicken, brocoli, carrots and other goodies in a peanut sauce. Hello Happy Tummy! It really hit the spot. After dinner we headed to the hills, this time in a car, with our packs in the trunk. Aunt Ronnie lives in a great house set high in the mountains. It was great to be in a place that felt like a home instead of a bunk house. We had a fun time sitting aroun chatting. I had one Heinikein and it went straight to my head. Then I started work on two major projects. First, my sleeping pad keeps slipping out from under me in my tent due to the sil-nylon bottom. Aunt Ronnie had some rubber stuff that goes under rugs so they don't slip. We secured some of that on the bottom of my sleeping pad with carpet tape; I hope it holds. Next, Sprout and I still didn't have a stove to burn esbits since we lost hers in the last snow. I took the pineapple can that I bought specifically for that purpose, emptied it, and took the church key to it. I went outside to test it. It worked! Excellent, now I don't have to buy an esbit stove, only the tablets for fuel along the way. That was it for equipment repairs. I healed some too. I slept downstairs on a matress next to a gas fireplace. Midway through the night, I awoke to a blazing fire warming me. Ah, it was so refreshing and such a nice surprise. I wondered if someone had started it after I went to sleep; turns out that it is on a thermostat. How delightful. I also got to take a hot bath in a big tub with jets. Now that's a great way to help the muscles relax. I checked the progress of the voting for my trail name. This may turn out more like Florida's 2000 election than I had hoped. Another candidate entered the running this morning. Jenny's aunt suggested "wildfire" because of my misfortune with setting things on fire with my stoves and also because of my red hair. I like it too. Oh, too many names to choose from. I almost had a heart attack today when I discovered that I sent my maildrop in Fontana Dam to the wrong location. Somehow I had come up with Box 5 on the road for the Hike Inn and the Companion for this year has a number address on Fontana Road. "Oh Damned," I thought, "two messed up maildrops out of two. This is not a good track record." Alas, I called Nancy at the Hike Inn and she confirmed that my packages had arrived. Thank goodness. We left Aunt Ronnies around 12:30 and arrived at the trail by 2. Right on schedule. We only had four miles to hike to Silar Bald Shelter. So we went to it. The miles flew by and before I knew it I was tented on a nice slope. I met a couple of folks tonight, Starbuck and Thirsty. They went on to the top of the bald to camp. Hopeful who had stayed the night at the Blueberry Patch Hostel with us pulled in to camp after that though. He and I sat around and had some really cool conversations about politics, gun control and social responsibility.