Date: 2005-10-23
From: Fontana Dam Shelter, NC

To: 3 miles south of Cheoah Bald, NC
Miles today: 23.4

23.4 miles today3 miles south of Cheoah Bald, NC I slept in Fontana Dam Shelter last night and could not get comfortable on the hard wood I had to sleep on. I tossed and turned most of the night. I woke up at 6:30am and started my coffee and ate two cherry fruit pies for breakfast. My tent was completely dry this morning. There was a nice breeze blowing in through the shelter all night. After I packed up, I walked .3 miles north back to the Visitor's Center and sent in my journal from yesterday. I was only walking to near Cheoah Mountain today, so I had plenty of time to play. It was 8:30 by the time I started walking south on the trail. I found out later that it was 37 degrees this morning. I knew it was cool, but didn't think it was in the 30's. I got to Rt 28 in about a mile. There is a coke machine there and I stopped and bought 4 cokes. I drank one right then because the water from the Visitor's Center was terrible. There was a group gathering there for a hike. I asked what they were up to and they said they were going on a 3 mile hike. There were quite a few walkers and 3 rangers in the bunch. I packed away my other 3 cokes and hiked on. I was real glad to see the first stream in the mountain I was climbing. I dumped out the bottle of water I had from Fontana and got some good water. After climbing about 1700 feet in 3 miles I got to Walker Gap. I climbed another 300 feet and got to an unnamed summit of a mountain. It's times like these when I wish I was hiking with John Galt again. He was always good at naming mountains. :-))) I could see through the trees that there was fog covering the valley below. It was extra nice to look at because some of the trees are in full color now. I kept walking until I got to Cable Gap Shelter. I filled up both my water bottles there because the water looked good. I signed the register and hiked on. It's great to be back in the south again. From Fontana down to Springer Mountain is my second favorite part of the A.T. My favorite part is Maine, but at least down here no one has an accent. :-))) I did another 1100 foot climb before heading down to Brown Fork Gap Shelter where I ate lunch. I had one of those cokes I packed out and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There was a guy there on a day hike. He told me he started a thru hike in '75, but never made it to Springer. He quit on the approach trail. Hummm.. I hiked on and got to Stecoah Gap where I sat down and clipped a toenail that was poking a hole in one of my good socks. From there it was a nice 1900 foot climb up to Cheoah Bald. Cheoah Bald and Stecoah Gap are a couple of my favorite names of places on the trail. I took a few pictures of the views from the summit and then walked on to Sassafras Gap Shelter where I ate dinner and filled both my water bottles for the night. There were four ladies there on an overnight campout. I talked to them while I was eating. They were funny and seemed to be having a great time even though they couldn't get a fire going. I hiked on another 2 miles before I found a nice spot to set up my tent under a tree. I'm up to 29 leaves in my leaf catching game. I decided to let some east coast people play, but it's not going to be as large a group as those from the desert southwest. I stressed all day thinking about all those people running around the desert catching leaves, so the new group that gets to play are going to be from the White Mountains in NH. I have some very definate rules to be applied to those people though. They have to be either day hikers or backpackers that are in the White Mountains, but can only play if they are above tree line....just remember, my game, my rules!! :-))) I'll post another group of people that will be able to play on tomorrow's journal. Today was probably the best weather that I've had on this entire hike. It was just an absolutely beautiful day to be walking. Oh yeah, Happy Birthday to Chris, one of my baby brothers. He's 41 today.