Date: 2006-04-20
From: NOC

To: Locust cove Gap
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Man it feels great to be back on the trail! I got an early start this morning, stopping at the River's End restaurant and fortifying myself with a full stack of blueberry pancakes. Then I got things packed up and hit the trail at 9:30 or so. Ten miles actually looks a little small compared to most of my previous days, but given that the first six miles were an unrelieved ascent of three thousand feet of elevation, I feel pretty darned good about it! Fontana is now only about 18 miles away and I have until noon Saturday to reach it. My two options, as I see them, are to either go to Cable Gap shelter, which is a twelve-mile hike, or then get going at like 6am the next morning, or to just to go to Fontana tomorrow.I'm kinda leaning towards the latter option. It's eighteen miles, yeah, but it's an easier trip than the one to the NOC was and that one was 17 miles. The big NOC push featured two thousand-foot climbs. The trip to Fontana only has two that are seven hundred or so. Anyway, I'll head on to Cable Gap and see how I'm feeling then. With any luck I'll be in the "Fontana Hilton" tomorrow night. That's just what they call the Fontana Dam visitor's center and thus has a phone, restrooms, and showers an easy distance away. The shelter itself is supposedly a good one as well.I got rained on for the first time this afternoon. It started raining just as I was cresting Cheoah Bald, the 5,062-foot mountain that's right in your face as you leave the NOC. Right as I got to the top, the lightning and thunder started. If you've never been on top of a mountain in a thunderstorm, I highly recommend it. It's very exciting! Needless to say I put my pack cover on and hurried down the trail as fast as I could to get off the top of that mountain!I didn't bother with my rain gear, though, as I was already soaked to the bone with sweat, and it wasn't cold out so I didn't need the protection. I just let the rain wash over me as I walked. It actually felt pretty good. I came up with a number of pros and cons for raining while I was being rained on:Pros: No bugs, There will be water to drink later in the season, rain against tent lulls you to sleep. Hat is clean. Pack straps no longer encrusted with salt. Cools off the day.Cons: Wet, more bugs after it rains than before. Setting up/taking down tent in rain is the worst ever. Slippery rocks= fall down. Humidity sucks.In an amusing twist it stopped raining and the sun came out right as I arrived at the place I wanted to camp. "Turtle" was already there and I pointed out this to her. She thanked me for bringing it.We weren't sure where "Librarian" was, as she left later than the two of us, but she just arrived at camp a few minutes ago. She rode out the storm on the ridge just like I did, just a few miles farther behind.The sun was only around for a little bit, but it lasted long enough for me to set up my tent, cook dinner, and take care of all my little camp chores. Right as I was hanging my food bag from a tree, it started raining again and we all retreated to our tents. It's not raining right now, but the whole sky is flashing with distant lightning. There's no thunder, though, so it's a little eerie.Despite the rain it feels great to be back on the trail. I am definitely finally getting used to this sort of existence, I think. I usually feel pretty bad on the uphills. Not physically or anything. More like "why the hell am I doing this?" Today, though, I just felt great the whole day even through that grueling early climb and even through getting rained on. I imagine I definitely needed the break at NOC, but I still think two days was a bit excessive. Every day off makes it harder to start again.Anyway, time to label pictures and then go to sleep. Big day tomorrow!