Date: 2007-11-13
From: Punchbowl Shelter

To: Near Sulfer Spring Trail
Miles today: 16.4

mi. 16.4sleep hammockdest. Stealth site near Sulphur Spring Trail day 124 Happy 4 months on the trail for me. I started south 4 months ago today. It seems like forever ago. Lots of great experiences, places, and people since then. Today I also crossed the 1400 mile hiked mark. Can't say we stopped and did anything special. Once again we realized it afterward, which seems to be the theme with mileage marks. Funny to think that I have 2 months or less left and over 700 miles togo. But that's keeping with the average I guess. I am sitting right on 350 miles a month with all of my poking around. I can't say anything special happened last night. No real mouse issues to speak of. I slept in my hammock sock with the end pulled over my face. Torque was zipped in his mummy bag. Also no signs of little Ottie. Rumor has it he haunts this shelter. I think it is rumors though. I'll get to his story in a minute. I did hear an unusual snorting noise last night. Of course Torque was sleeping and snoring a little bit through all of it. It didn't sound exactly like a deer, I have heard them snort before. It may have been though. The shelter is really close to a pond with a spring below that is most animals in the area water source I bet. The first little bump was Bluff mountain. I left a little earlier than Torque. The top is cleared off. It looks as if there was an old firetower there. I stopped to take in the views and a snack for the morning. I did see a gardner snake trying to sun itself in the grass. I was a little surprised to see him up here. It is pretty high for them, overcast, plus it is the first snake I seen in awhile. A couple minutes later Torque rolled up. It took us a minute, but we found the plaque for Ottie. It is actually right next to the trail south of the peak. Back in the 1890's he wondered away from a school house looking for firewood and was found months later 7 miles away on this summit. He was only just under 5 at the time. Quite a distance for someone that young. The plaque says a little about him. A sad story. It seems though people are making a little shrine there on the plaque with a rather odd asortment of things. All told there was acron tops, a lighter that !said "Are you lost", a fake parrot, a pen, 26 cents, an LSU football pez dispensor, and what looked to be a 9mm hollow point ammo round. Interesting to say the least what people leave in a tribute to someone they never met. Anyways, the hiking today went a lot better than yesterday. Torque said he was hurting yesterday too. All told I think I drank or ate 5 pounds out of the pack. It rides way better. I was pushing 5 over the pack limit. We stopped at a great overlook. The leaves are still in peak color in the valleys. I thought I would be through all of the leave change by now. I think I first saw it in PA. The peaks and ridges are mainly off, but it is holding strong down below. I finally talked Torque into taking a pic of me that I have been wanting for a while. Basically of me peeing off the side of a mountain. It turned out ok, I'll have to try again at some point. I may have to wait until my dad comes out. He'll get a kick out of it. Speaking of which. It is a little too early to say what is going to happen yet. But at some point Thanks Giving Week my parents are going to come out. There is talk of all week. The plan is to mainly Hotel. My dad is going to join me for the parts he can, along with at least one night on the trail. My mom is going to be running support. My dad can't hike everything, so I came up with a good alternative. He will hike with me slack packing for either the beginning or end of a day. Probibly for 5 miles or so depending on the roads. I will slack pack the rest alone. It will be interesting to see what I can do again. I am thinking of taking Thanks Giving completly off. I'm sure we can find somewhere to enjoy the eating rituals. Plus there is football to watch. I am also thinking of taking them down the Blue Ridge Parkway and maybe Skyline Drive through SNP. If we do that maybe we should stop by and see what Rusty is doing for Thanks Giving. I'm sure he and my par!ents would get a kick out of that. Torque's plans sit at going home for a few days. If both our plans work out that will probibly be where we part ways for the duration. I will be a good ways in front when he gets back. There is a few people including Catz about 3.5 days in front. I think no one is close behind. They would have caught us by now is the putting around the last few days. It is going to be interesting to see if anyone in front takes a few days off for the holiday so I can caught up. We stopped in and took a break at a couple shelters today. Rumor has it the next one might be dry so we were in no hurry to get there. At the first one a maintainer finally did what I have been saying all along they should do. A couple of the blow downs in the shelter area were cut up into firewood sized logs. A first for the whole trail as far as I can remember. To bad it didn't work out to stay there. I could maybe see a bonfire at night. At the second I noticed my gear troubles continuing. Where the shoulder strap connects to the pack at the bottom had most of the stiches out. The fabric looked intact, but the seam was coming appart. I think this is partly caused by my over loading, only when I am full of water on the first night out of town. I think it was made worse by the hip belt issues. It keeps coming loose causing my shoulder to have to carry more of a load. Now I find myself tightening it every half mile or less. Tomorrow I am going to call Gregory and see what they can do. They have a good rep for helping thru hikers. After a bit of time and frustration I finally got a temperary fix sewn on. It held through the rest of the day. Hopefully it will hold. We were aiming for Big Cock Knob tonight. A nice high spot with some views on a warm-ish evening. But we ran out of daylight. We found a descent spot. It took awhile to find a spot of Torques tent. For once I feel like my food is hung in a good spot. It looks to be hung good in a tree a good ways away. In the past it is usually hung too close to camp. Usually because tht is the only good bear bag tree in sight. The rest of the night was spent eating, reading, and journaling. Tomorrow hopfuly a 20+. There is a cool tri-level shelter that sounds like a good spot to spend an evening. That would also put us in a good spot to make town the next day.