Date: 2003-03-15
From: nantahala outdoor center (noc)

To: brown fork gap shelter
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: light rain

day 14today's my brother's birthday. happy birthday chris!had a great night's sleep on the balcony outside ted and friends' bunkhouse. it was a nice, breezy, crisp night. not too cold but just enough to make you wanna snug right up in your bag.was up at the crack of dawn and got started on the day's chores. took another shower and started on my laundry. all went well with the wash but had to dry twice to get everything crisp. chores being done and having said bye to ted, rich and 3rd friend, went up to the community room above the showers and laundry to make a call. made my call and went into the kitchen to snoop around for some leftovers or something, anything.there i found a cool cat by the name of "cornfed." and indeed he was. the guy wasn't too much taller than me, maybe 5'10'', and not immensely stocky, but you could tell the guy was strong. cornfed hiked the AT on leap day of 2000 and now has plans to hike the pct on the leap day of 2004. which means i wont see him on my pct hike starting almost two months after his. anyways, cornfed was at the noc for a two-week training stint. what's he training for and how's he doing it you ask? well, cornfed is training for a summit of denali sometime this year (done by now i'm certain) and he's training by running 16 miles north of the noc on the AT every day during these two weeks. today was actually his last day and no, he wasn't gonna run on his last day.cornfed asked me if i was interested in some breakfast and naturally i took him up on it. as he was preparing my omelette i started with two bowls of cocoa puffs and some fruit. my omelette being done cornfed sat down with me and we chatted for a bit while i ate. he told me about some of his adventures on the AT, his work back home, his aspirations for denali and the pct. he told me something that became one of the most important things for my self. he told me that as far as towns went, try to stick to the trail. that there was nothing wrong with going in and checking them out and even staying every once in a while. that that too was part of the experience. but his two buddies and himself preferred to stick to the trail. they would rather do slower, smaller days and stick to the trail instead of doing huge days just to make up for lost time in town or to bank miles in order to stay in town.i heeded cornfed's advice for the next 200 miles until erwin, tn, but that story's for another day folks. in the meantime i'm gorging on all the breakfast selection and stuffing myself beyond recognition. after having enough, i thanked cornfed, we said our goodbyes and i headed out. man was i stuffed. i thought to myself, "well, i've got enough calories to burn now, let's just see if i can move enough to burn them."i thought it was gonna be horrible, but it wasn't. the first few miles were a little difficult and i would on occasion taste some of my breakfast coming up (i know, sounds bad doesn't it), but after that it was great and i was moving. i got to sassafras shelter in no time and ran into mr. cranky pants and sire who i'd met just last night. they were having themselves a snack at this gorgeous shelter and weren't planning on moving an inch further up the trail. i was surprised and i remember cranky pants saw my expression and said something like, "yeah, i know, we're wimps." but they by no means are. you do what you want out here. that's the best thing. there's no clock to punch and you're your own boss. i hung out with the fellas for a bit, had some lunch, checked out there map, saw the huge climb (back then standards) that is cheoah bald and headed out. oh, the fellas also told me there was a message in the register for me so i checked it out. it was brendan and dean. they said they had stayed at this shelter last night but were only headed to the next 7 miles up, brown fork gap shelter, so catch up.i headed out in good spirits cause i'd see the fellas and went about my day's business: hiking. before i knew it i was on top of the cloudy, foggy, drizzly cheoah bald. actually take that back. i did know it as i was going up. i remember that it felt like the climb went on forever. it wasn't that it was horendously steep or anything. it was just a big climb. and the fact that visibility was only about 30' didn't help much either. it gave the illusion that i was going nowhere fast. but i made it to the top still feeling good. didn't get much a view because of the weather, but i heard it's gorgeous up there. i had myself a snack (p.b. and jelly four-tortilla burrito) and headed down.the rest of the hike was uneventful, but what i can tell you is that between the decline and by the time i got to the trail-shelter junction, i got tired. by the time i got to the junction i was beat. i sat down by a blow down by the junction and just rested a bit. i was so happy to finally be there and was just so happy to hear all those familiar voices in the distance. i was finally home. it had turned out to be a difficult day. not really terrain or steep wise as far as i can remember, but it had been a long day.i started walking down the side-trail to the shelter and as soon as i got within view i naturally heard dean's big mouth say something like "where the f^&k have you been?" god, i missed hiking with that guy in the future. he's a good person. well, i said what's up to everybody, and pretty much everybody was there. journeyman, dean, brendan, hot poles, red, dimps, a-train, malkovich, and a few others. i got myself some water and slipped on the way down. i hadn't slipped the whole, wet day on the trail, but naturally i slip on the way to get some water. got myself some water, washed up a bit and had myself a well deserved deluxe dinner. everybody had already eaten at that point so as soon as the smells started seeping out my pot everybody's like "siesta, what you got there?" "oh, nothing much. just some thin spagheti with olive oil, a little garlic powder and some salt." "mmm, that sounds good!" "yeah, you bet your sweet ass it does!" dinner taken care of, everything being unpacked and layed out, and it being already dark. it was time to you know what ____. no, not have a huge, dirty, stinky hiker orgy. just go to bed man. just going to bed, that's all. i promise. and well ladies and gentelman, that was the closing of another great day on the you know what ____. and this one you can guess pretty easily.