Date: 2007-04-04
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Dicks Creek Gap
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: overcast clouds

ParadoxI spent last night at the top of Tray Mountain. About one a.m. we had the mother of all thunderstoms. I wasn't at the top top, but pretty close, and fairly exposed. My tent was under a few small trees and I was lying there thinking, "They were small trees, right? I guess if one gets hit by lightning its just going to fall on me and there's nothing I can do about it so why worry?"My tent door was leaking. I already knew it was a problem so partly by luck and partly by design ( I was trying to pitch it so the door sloped down) I ended up pitching the tent over a small hump,so both ends sloped down. I woke up with rain coming in, but it was collecting in the corner by the door. I had one dry bandana and I started to sop it up so the water wouldn't hit my sleeping bag. The bandana was soon soaked, so I looked around for something else dry to sacrifice to the dry sleeping bag gods, but there wasn't anything. Then I remembered I had bought a screw-top ziplock container the day before to use as a chamber pot in the tent. So I wrung out the bandana into that and managed to soak up a cup of water. When the rain let up some I opened up the door and tossed the water outside. I started laughing. I was bailing out the tent!After the rain let up, I went back to sleep thinking (hoping) I would stay dry. When I woke up this morning there was another 2 cups of water collected by the door, but everything else was dry.Hawkeyes and I got a little bit of a late start. We were out at 8:30. We were pretty much together all morning until we got to "Swag of the Blue Ridge" about 11 a.m. We stopped for a 45 minute break and ate there. Hawkeyes gave me some of her beef jerky and I gave her an apple. We ran into Nancy who had camped there last night. Hawkeyes said she would give me a ride back to the trail if I wanted to stay a little longer at Dawn's so I may stay until Monday. I am hoping to get a new backpack and get the tent sealed. The back pack I have is heavy, about 5 pounds and it is a little too big for me since I lost the weight. I should be able to drop 2 pounds.The weather cleared up noonish. I stopped at Addis Gap about 1 pm, took my shoes off and knitted for 15 minutes. There was one climb up Kelly Knob that was a bit steep, but not too bad. The view at the top was stunning. There are so many varieties of beautiful out here and no words to do it justice. Today the quality of the light, filtered through a slight haze, made everything stand out crisply and clearly.As the afternoon wore on the wind picked up out of the west. It was about 55 degrees and the wind was cold. I was glad to head down out of it. When I reached Deep Gap I had to decide if I was going to go .3 miles down the hill for water (so I could camp a little farther on) or try to make it to Dick's Gap which was 3.4 more miles plus another 1.5 to the hostel where I had a food drop waiting. I opted to go on. It was 3 pm. I hustled and made it to the Gap at about 20 minutes to 5.As I was heading down into the gap I went through a long stretch that wound around the sides of the mountains. It was straight up and straight down on either side of the trail. At one point I could see the trail for quite a distance straight in front of me and even farther as it wound around the side of a mountain to the right. I looked up and there was a tree with the most gratuitous white blaze I have seen. I started laughing because there was absolutely nowhere else to walk except along this highly visible stretch of trail.I was thinking about paradox. On the one hand, it seems completely crazy to strap 30+ pounds on your back and walk up and down mountains to nowhere. On the other hand it feels like one of the most sane things I have ever done. It feels so right to be walking here. Ruby walked with me for a little ways. She liked it because it was not rocky and not too steep.When I got to the gap, I crossed the road and there were a couple guys waiting by a SUV. One guy said, " Are you going to Cloud 9?" I said, "I sure am!" and he said ,"Look at that grin!"I got to the hostel, cleaned up, did my laundry. Everyone was going into town for pizza, so I decided to go with the flow and go along. Had a beer (boy was that good) and ate the topping off the pizza. It was good to go and chat with people. I met G Smurf, Brian, and a very nice guy who had done a lot of traveling (Inca trail, Asia) and unfortunately I can't remember his name. Ran into Mark (Weatherman) at the hostel. I hadn't seen him since last week at the hiker hostel.They were playing some great West Coast Swing and Country Two Step music at the bar. It made me want to dance! Of course, I was dressed in hiking boots, black gortex pants that are about 4 sizes too big for me and a fleece top with no bra (my clothes were in the wash), so I didn't get brave and ask anyone to dance.When we got back to the hostel, I knitted on my afghan for awhile and went to bed. (Its the Appalafghan for all you fans of silly names)Here is where I spent the night http://www.upperhightowertrout.com/It was another great place to stay with very nice hosts.About 10.5 miles today.