Date: 2013-03-19
From: Betty Creek Gap

To: Rock Gap
Miles today: 8.5

Remember all that rain from the night before? Well, we woke up to an absolutely beautiful cloudless blue sky! What a difference! But the damage had been done..as we packed up to leave Betty Creek Gap, everything, including the tents, were very wet. And, I encountered my 2nd malfunction¢¦the first being last night when I almost burned up all my equipment. You see¢¦before the rain last night started pouring and we scrambled to reach our tents, I had already hung my ¢bear rope¢ in a nearby tree so that I could easily hang my pack once supper preparations were over. The goal of ¢bear proofing¢ your camp is to minimize odors that might attract bears, and to set up safe storage areas for food and garbage that are out of reach of bears and are away from your sleeping area. ¢Bear bagging¢ is something of a general term used for hanging your food¢¦there are lots of other animals who will want to grab your food. The bags should hang from a point where the tree can still support them but bear cubs and other critters will have difficulty reaching them. You also have to make sure the bags cannot be reached from the ground either. So, we were forced into our tents by the rain and hail..dragging all our equipment/food bags in with us to keep them from being soaked. When I woke up this morning and started packing, it did not even cross my mind that the rope was still hanging in the tree¢¦I walked off without it! Now I will have to purchase more rope, etc. at the next town we go into..which will be Franklin, N. C.The zenith of today¢s hike was the climb (literally in some places) to Albert Mountain and the views from on top. Albert Mountain is in North Carolina's Nantahala Range of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Trail goes along its summit, which is 5,250 feet high. It has some steep parts (about 500 feet) that will get your blood pumping and you find yourself crawling straight up the ¢trail¢ hand over fist looking for hand-holds! Then you step out of rhododendron to open rock. A fire tower offers views of the Blue Ridge and the Little Tennessee River valley. The original metal fire tower was built in the 1950's to replace an older, wooden tower on nearby Standing Indian Mountain. The fire tower on Albert Mountain was a "live-in" tower at the height of its use. You have to be very careful climbing the steps of the tower all the way up to the locked gate at the top but you gain a near 360 degree view. The view from the catwalk must be phenomenal! I stopped for a rest on the top of Albert Mountain¢saw that I had a cell signal, called my wife to say hello and told her about the view..and then headed on down the trail through a thick canopy of more rhododendron.My original plan was to hike to Winding Stair Gap today and then call for a shuttle into Franklin, NC where the ¢hiking buddies¢ and I planned to spend the night. However, I got to Rock Gap¢¦about 4 miles earlier than my intended goal..and arrived only 4 minutes before the shuttle got there. Lucky break! My fellow hikers had arrived about 12 hour earlier than I did and decided they had had enough for the day¢¦very ready to get into Franklin..check into the hotel, take a hot shower and find an AYCE (all you can eat) restaurant! The shuttle was here and I didn¢t need a lot of convincing! The shuttle was provided by the owner of the Budget Inn and Sapphire Inn in Franklin. He furnishes a daily free shuttle for hikers to/from Winding Stair Gap and Rock Gap throughout March and April at 9 am and 11 am when you stay at either of the motels..which most thru hikers use because they are cheap, clean and have a laundry. We checked into the Sapphire Inn, cleaned up, went out to eat, and then retired for the evening at about ¢Hiker Midnight¢ (which is 8 pm)¢¦