Date: 2016-05-11
From: Unnamed Campsite 

To: The Priest
Miles today: 11.0

Today was confession and communion day as we aimed for one of the iconic mountains on the southern Appalachian Trail. Also, today about 4 miles in I cross over trail I have covered last year and start on ¢new territory¢. After yesterday¢s climb to start the day, today was nice and rolling. The first 5 or so miles went rather quickly and we stopped early to dry our tents. The Priest heading NOBO is not nearly the climb as heading south would be. Even so we did not want to be carrying extra water weight on our tents. Our first climb was up to Spy Rock, near where I began my slack pack hike SOBO last year. I was amazed how fast and easy I covered 17 miles last year and that took me over a day of hiking this year. That 2000 foot climb was the difference. Going down it in 2015 was fast. The Spy Rock climb was a bit more than I anticipated. Once at the summit the side trail to the rock was extra miles and we decided to skip it. There was however a super nice camping area at that junction. Up next on the Priest we would climb about three fourths of the way before coming to the shelter and camping area. Tomorrow we would begin the day finishing the climb. Fog was setting in as we arrived at the camping area. Camp sites preceded the shelter which was actually downhill a bit. Ed was ahead of me as I passed the camping area. One tent was there already snuggled into some nice rock and looking mighty comfortable. My first thought was let¢s just camp her and not near the shelter tonight. In sight of the shelter but not quite there, I found Ed talking with another hiker ¢Chili¢ and his dog Pepper. Chili forewarned us of a guy inhabiting the shelter who was on the odd side and had been there several days. We did an about face and went back to the camp sites. At the campsite we met ¢Purple Haze¢ a young lady obviously happy to have us join her with the odd guy so nearby. She was much too young to have known much of Hendrix so we needed to quiz her about the trail name. That¢s Ed¢s forte. Mine is forgetting what he found out which is exactly what I¢ve done since learning of it and writing this piece. One just can¢t record everything in the handwritten journal.This is possibly the nicest campsite so far on my whole AT journey. Nice ground, great scenery and sparsely inhabited this night. We did have to venture to the shelter to re-supply our water. After setting up tents and before cooking our dinners we headed down the do that and personally check out the odd hiker. Once watered up we went to introduce ourselves. The guy was from Kansas City was carrying per his info over 125 pounds of gear and was not hiking the trail except it pieces. The pack weight seemed likely as he had set up a fan powered by D cell batteries and his air mattress was one of those you keep around for guests at home that looks like a real mattress. He told us his trail name was ¢White¢. We hoped White was not trying to hike north like us and that that was the last we would see of him. Signing the trail journal at the shelter we noticed that most hikers began their entries with the traditional ¢Father forgive me for I have sinned¢¦..¢. And many wrote a lot of stuff, mostly real creative and funny. For me a simple ¢Logman here for the night and for communion¢.After a nice dinner of Taco Mac I turned in to enjoy a night of nice moonlight and no rain.Blessings,