Date: 2005-04-01
From: Nantahala Outdoor Center, NC

To: Sassafrass Gap Shelter, NC
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: moderate rain

I made it through the envelope with ten handwritten pages and am onto the envelope with six handwritten, legal-size pages. Whoever gave Jess legal paper, you are my sworn enemy. Good Lord.Day 19, in which Jess went to the woods because she wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if she could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when she came to die, discover that she had not lived: Got a later start than intended because I had to ship some packages, which ended up taking awhile. The morning was misty wet and spitting and the guy in the mailroom said, "You better think real hard about going out there today. Let me show you the radar." There was a severe thunderstorm watch underway. I watched the green radar cloud covering the state, and thought of the night before: boiling hot, since I'd accidentally turned up the heat too high and almost melted Cuppa Joe's FrogTogs. I felt a familiar sinking feeling: I have to get out of this place!So, desperate to escape the sucking vortex of town, I set out-- though admittedly with some trepidation-- Gearhead's dire prophecies about my body self-destructing had unnerved me in spite of myself, and even though I wasn't in any particular pain. I stepped carefully, imagining phantom injury, and thinking thoughts perhaps less kind than I generally care to admit.Although it was misty and wet, it wasn't pouring, and it wasn't very cold either, and I was glad-- so glad-- to be back on the trail. It felt good to be moving. Partway up-- a mole, grey and fuzzy and unworried, toodling along the muddy trail. The moss-covered logs glowed green in the fog. More mountain laurel, and much of it seems to be sick in places-- I'm not enough of a botanist to diagnose the problem, but the leaves are full of holes and splotched brown, and the whole plant covered with pale green fringelike moss-- which, especially in the mist, lends an admittedly fairy-like effect to the whole area, but the trees still seem less than pleased with the arrangement.Passing the Nantahala Gorge Overlook, I didn't expect much in the way of views-- but the clouds blew away just as I went up there, exposing a broad vista and the river below. Beautiful. The climb up the rest of Swim Bald went up and up and UP-- the last 2 miles seemed to last forever. The trail was littered with blowdowns, also-- and straddling logs that size is an experience for someone with legs as short as mine.Cuppa Joe and I arrived at Sassafrass Gap Shelter relatively early-- it was only 7 miles from NOC-- and I'd have happily gone another three or four miles, but we knew nasty weather was rolling in, and I wanted to be under a roof if at all possible for the imminent rain and thunder-- "I don't mind wet wet," I said, "but cold wet is another story. Especially an exposed ridge in a lightning storm." The next shelter, also, was a) 9 miles away, and b) going to be packed. So we laid up early, and I ate a big lunch and was in dry clothes in my sleeping bag at 3 PM. I finally, also, managed to finish the book I'd brought with me, thereby setting a new slowness record for Time Elapsed Between Covers of a Book Jess is Reading. Well worth it, though-- Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass-- thanks Sam, for eternally insisting I read it.Others trickled into the shelter as the afternoon passed-- Socks, KT, Pacman, Treetrunks, and G-- and around 5:00 the rain suddenly came down hard-- we're talking 0 to 60 in mere minutes. I made a privy run faster than I've probably moved ever since starting this hike. I'd eaten so much lunch I had little appetite for dinner, but I heated instant miso and looked out into the mist, sipping while rain fell on the roof and I sat there dry, and I was content.