Date: 2012-04-16
From: Jones Meadow

To: Ridge before Sugarloaf Gap
Miles today: 14.7

There was a nice sunrise coming through the mountains in the morning. I left w/ Hungus and Pace and soon reached Big Firescald Knob which was an exposed ridgeline w/ great views. This was another morning that I felt privileged to be hiking the trail and not going to work. There were many mornings like this where the only thing that would bother me was untangling my iPod headphones. This could be quiet the process sometimes, but after that it was smooooth sailing. While taking in the views, I decided to call REI to see what I could do about this pack situation. I decided it would be best to wait until later to deal w/ my pack and make the best of it for now. I could always put padding or something underneath the hipbelt in order for it to fit better. I met up w. Hungus, Pace, Cheesewater, Sir Towely, and Watermelon by Big Butt Mountain. Yes, that is the real name. I walked and talked w/ Cheesewater(I still hadn't asked how he got his name..) about hockey. Him and Sir Towely were from Long Island and were big Rangers fans. They started w/ a third friend who had already dropped out and he had been the one whose idea it was. It seemed this was a rather common occurrence for groups or couples starting together. We came to an especially muddy part of the trail and instead of going around it, Sir Towely felt obligated to help fix the trail so he was putting dead trees and branches in the trail to use as a bridge. A bridge that you would have to be extremely well balanced and careful not to fall in the mud next to it, so I declined and used the path off of the trail that others had clearly been using. After Big Butt, the trail went down about 1000 feet in a mile and I could feel my knee bothering me a bit. It worked itself out and I attributed it to the bad weather we were supposed to be getting. I stopped at Flint Mountain shelter for lunch and talked to the same group and some others. I hadn't been wondering where or whether Wiffle and Hawk would be catching me, but I wasn't surprised to see them show up at the shelter. They had lost Fastback after he took a zero the day they slackpacked and they were planning to camp around the same spot as I was. The terrain today was relatively flat, but there were a lot of small ups and downs that the map didn't emphasize as well. By the time we got to the water source where we needed to fill up I was beat and my shoulder was bothering me. I was ready to camp at the next piece of flat ground, but there wasn't any. I filled up 4 liters of water to last me that night and the next morning and hiked up about 700 feet with shoulder pain the whole time. It felt like I pinched a nerve even though I don't know what that feels like. Finally, we found a spot where all of our tents would fit even though that is about all the room we had. I stretched my shoulder and started to seriously consider reducing my pack weight. It was good to camp w/ the guys. We started a small fire and used even smaller rocks to build a firepit. A hiker named TP who I had met briefly at Davenport Gap passed us around 8pm and we could hardly see him. I found out later that he had hiked a 32 mile day. No thanks. I talked to Kaitie before bed and a beetle moth chased me around a bit. I don't know whether that is a real thing, but some type of insect/bird about the size of my fist was buzzing back and forth past me and almost got into my tent. 31 miles left until Erwin, TN!