Date: 2008-10-15
From: Rice Mountain

To: Cow Camp Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: scattered clouds

There is a reason I don't hike in the East in the summer. I don't do very well in hot weather. I become a dead daisy in heat. When it did not get colder than 65 all night long I knew I was in for a hot day.First I finished the walk up Rice Mountain, which took all of 5 minutes. While descending the other side I got a nice view of the rising sun through the trees. Pretty.I descended down to a suspension bridge just before the Pedlar Dam at the Lynchburg Reservoir. I passed Excitable Hiker, a SOBO section hiker who did the AT as a thru-hike in 03 and has a tatoo on his arm to prove it. He said he might run into me up the trail as he is just skipping around doing sections.The trail went beside the reservoir and then after a bit it went along Brown Mountain Creek. This was an area settled by freed slaves who worked as sharecroppers. There were remnants of stone walls along the trail and 2 plaques in inerpretive information. Supposedly they raised corn, oats, tobaco and wheat. I don't see how they could have grown anything like that in these narrow valleys full of rocks. Interesting.It was hot enough that even in the cool of the morning, sweat was running freely and the 6 & 1/2 miles to Brown Mountain Creek Shelter had me pretty tired even when I got there at 11:30. And that was the easy part of the day.I had lunch and got water and had a good rest. Woodman caught up with me. He had been a half hour behind me most of the day.I started out again as he was getting his water. And the afternoon's challenge was a 2600 ft climb in 82 humid degrees. It was hot and hard! I had two long stops mainly to cool down. Some of the time I felt like I was going so slowly I could have crawled faster than I could walk. But I probably could not have done that either. At one of the places I stopped to cool down, Woodman said later he had done the same.I finally emerged on top of Bald Knob, which wasn't very bald and there was not even very much in the way of a view. Or maybe I was to beat to appreciate it.I startled a grouse or two along the trail today. I have not been seeing deer but that may because there are more leaves on the trail now and I make more noise walking through them. I make so much noise myself that I am unlikely to hear deer bounding through the leaves over my own racket and they, of course, can hear me coming.I finally reached the trail to Cow Camp Gap Shelter. It is .5 miles off the trail. But it is the only chance for water for 2&1/2 more miles. I get there and before getting to the shelter I see the sign for the spring. I have been so hot and sweaty that I am dying for a chance to get clean. I was hoping to clean up and bathe before even getting to the shelter. But the pipe coming from the spring was dry and there was some soggy ground with a couple shallow puddle spots on top of silt. I put the pack down and excacvated three spots, sort of like mucking out the ponds at home. I think I will come back after I get settled to get water after the silt has a chance to settle.As I walk over to the shelter I go over a tiny creek with a spot that looks promising for water and the water is moving a little faster although still a trickle. It is a bigger trickle than my excavated spots.I met Claw Hammer at the shelter, a semi-retired Biology Lab instructor from Gettysburg doing a short SOBO section hike. He had cleard the leaves from the spot in the tiny creek. I filtered my water from that spot. Much cleaner, and had dinner. I really wanted to go back and get water from my excavated pools for washing but it got dark too fast so I had to go to bed dirty in spite of my efforts. Bummer.Woodman arrived before dark to get water too. It was a nice evening with nice company. I went to bed in the shelter and Claw Hammer had a hammock between trees. But Woodman decided to hike by headlamp up Cold Mountain before stopping. I don't know if I will see him again or not.We heard coyotes and owls in the evening. Nice evening.