Date: 2006-03-12
From: Carter Gap Shelter

To: Rock Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Another great hiking day. Perfect weather in the mid-60s with a constant breeze Went at what for us was a pretty relaxed pace. Monk treated today like he was out on a stroll. I hiked by myself for a while, much of the time on level ground. Hills thrown in just to remind you that you are still on the AT. Some ridge walking and views from Big Butt Mtn. Albert Mtn. was the challenge, a 500 foot rise over .3 miles. Stairs that just went up and up, these to remind you you're still in North Carolina. Albert was definitely worth the climb. You take up the challenge of the trail. You get your first taste of rock scrambling done on all fours. The view behind you opens out with every step.At one point I'm hauling myself up an incline choosing hand and foot holds as carefully as I do when climbing. Train was following behind me. When I turned to see his progress, he was standing behind me without having broken a sweat. He said, "Dude, I went around it." The trail actually passed the face climb on the right. Good for me anyway.Train and I stopped and took each other's picture from a bare rocky spot at the top. A few more yards to the summit adn we found everyone having lunch. Stunning view of surrounding mountains and countryside. (After great lunch of tuna with olive oil on a tortilla.) There was an old fire tower at the top for even greater viewing. Ajax and I climbed it, both with anxiety over the height. I'm not good with stairs you can see through and open air outside the railings. View from the top was worth it.Bush Whacker was at the top as was Josh who I'd met the day we crossed the state line. Bush Whacker's been keeping a very good pace since the day he was thinking about leaving the trail. He topped that mountain before we did.We had him take our informal group picture in front of the panorama. We also took one at included him. While posing, JP stated that she smelled pretty bad. I stood next to her and assured her that yes, she smells worse than everyone else and we're all pretty bad.After a picnic at the top (I guess every meal is a picnic out here) we picked up the pace and made it to camp in good time. I was with Monk and Milk Dud for a while playing State Capitals. None of us could get South Dakota. Good luck when we got into camp. We found a note announcing trail magic at the bottom of the slope. The dates were off, prompting disagreement over whether it's Sunday or Monday. Most decided that we had missed a chance of food and soda delivered to us by a compassionate trail angel. Deciding that I might really smell worse than JP, I went out to look for the water source to take a bandana bath. I missed the trail and ended up on the trail down to the National Forest parking Lot. As promised, I found past thru-hiker Crutch with a table of bread, meat, sodas, doughnuts. I flopped there for a while talking with him and several weekend hikers. The one's from yesterday who assured me it was Saturday. When I told him we were stopping in Franklin tomorrow for ... resupply and an AYCE buffet he offered to pick us up, shuttle us, and wait while we shopped and ate.When noone else appeared, I climbed back up to the shelter. I yelled, "Trail Magic" and the whole group pls 4 or 5 more came flying down the trail. It was a great picture: a bunch of relatively mature adults flying down a hill for bologna sandwiches and Hostess Donuts.He told us about the 3 buffets in town. Ajax had a gleam in his eye and said we should try to hit all 3. Him, JP, Roadrunner, Bush Whacker and I loaded into the van for the free ride into Franklin and AYCE Chinese. We stopped at a couple of motels to pick up more hikers. First time to meet a group of folks sharing the same trail but haven't seen each other yet. Nice to put faces with names from the shelter registers. Helium was there and we met Penny, Compass, Bear, Snake and a few others.We heard that 3 hikers dropped off the trail in Franklin yesteday. After the first hundred miles, the weeding has picked up. Town stops are nice, but I'll try to avoid them from now on. Like zero days they distract from the job at hand. They also remind you of the closeness of civilization while you're holding on to the illusion of wildness. Ron, the motel owner and driver told us about the huge sale of National Forest plots for housing developement. Also that the proposed road to nowhere carving into the wilderness side of Smokey Mountain National Park had been approved. Sickening. Waste and destruction when there is so little left to preserve.Back at camp, several of us hiked the path, mile round trip, to see the Waslick Poplar, one of the largest poplars in the country. Dead a few years ago, it's still impressive. It would take all of us holding hands to reach around the base. We disturbed a couple also contemplating its majesty.Full camp when we got back. Met up with 4 guys we've been seeing for several days, all teams from Tennessee. Interesting that age is much less of a factor out here. Many teens and 20-somethings plus me, plus 53 year old grandfather Bush Whacker all sitting around the fire and again, several hikers sharing cherry soda. Only on the AT.Tired. Back to bed.