Date: 2005-04-23
From: Indian grave gap

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 8.1
Weather: light rain

Last night, we met Vicky, Mr. Clean Jr.'s wife. We all went to dinner at the China Kitchen. She was sweet as could be and it was so nice to meet her after all we had heard about her! It was so much fun to watch her and "Jr" together, as they are still newlyweds and hadn't seen one another in about a month. After dinner we headed to the Food Lion to resupply and bought many needed items. We discovered the wonder of Nutella back in Hot Springs and resupplied on that. For years, I have seen this product on the shelves next to the Peanut Butter, but was skeptical and never had the gumption to try it. Boy, was I missing out! Thirteen ounces of chocolaty, hazelnut goodness plus 2000 calories all in a little plastic jar. This is not just hiker-hunger talking. I would highly recommend Nutella to anyone back home. Tastes like the filling in the gold-foil wrapped,Ferrero Rocher chocolates. (This is not a paid advertisement)After the grocery we set out towards town and introduced our friends to Sonic drive-in (the first trail town that has been big enough to house one). I am guessing there are no Sonics up north, because so many people we have met on the trail have never heard of them. "Jr" and Vicky were so nice to treat us; Bug had a pineapple shake and I had a Route 44 Strawberry Limeade (something else I have been craving for miles).They dropped us back at Uncle Johnny's before heading to their hotel. Bug and I got busy packing as we were due to leave the trail this morning at 7:30. It was starting to look pretty grim weather wise, and it didn't appear that reports of snow would be a fluke! I had intended to call Mom and Dad to talk, but our phone batteries weren't charged up. So we headed to bed to get up for an early departure.I was so sad to wake at 6:15 and realize I had to get up out of a warm soft bed and go out into the weather that dropped in temperature so rapidly overnight. We finished packing and bought a couple of last minute provisions from Uncle Johnny, one of which was a jumbo honey bun. Did you know that a honey bun has a whopping 640 calories in it?! Good news for hungry hikers and it is lightweight too! We also picked up some yummy fruit pies at the gas station before heading out. I remember going to the bread store with my Mamaw as a little girl and she would always treat me to a fruit pie. As I have gotten older and "wiser", I have had a hard time justifying the outrageous calorie and fat contents of those things, but now is the perfect time to splurge on any fattening food I want (and it has been wonderful)!Charlotte, our shuttle driver, dorve us back up the mountain to Indian Grave Gap, where we got back on the trail around 8:30 am. It is always a bit hard leaving town, but today was especially difficult, knowing that there was bad weather moving in. It wasn't too bad when we started, a little drizzly & windy, but we have weathered worse, so we hoofed it on up the mountain. Tried calling home, but there wasn't much signal because of the weather. Around 10:00 we came across Socks, headed southbound towards Erwin, where she was meeting her husband. By that point we had travelled about 3 miles. She told us to bundle up as there was sleet on top of Unaka Mountain (she was all bundled up in her jacket and gloves and looked a bit like an Eskimo). Bug and I stopped to put on our gloves and kept trucking. The temperatures continued to drop and just as she had warned the wind began to pick up and we started to get a wintry mix of rain, sleet, and snow. It wasn't so bad when the wind was calm, but awful when it blew up over the ridge.As Bug and I crested Unaka Mountain, we came into a lovely pine/spruce forest that looked a bit like something from Hansel and Gretel. Here it was somewhat warmer and much calmer, at least enough to talk. We came to the conclusion that we were both too cold to walk the 15 miles we had originally intended, so we stopped 2.7 miles below the mountain at Cherry Gap shelter.We arrived to find Train & Raindrop, Marshmallow & Colorado, Brownie & Soulman, Burning Man, and Professor all holed up in the shelter. They offered to squeeze together to make room for Bug and me, but we decided to set the tent up instead and have a little more room and privacy. We had a tasty double dinner of Beef Ramen with pepperoni and cheese, as well as 4-cheese mashed potatoes with added butter. As I write, Bug has just finished reading some chapters in Gulliver's Travels and is now listening to the wind as it moves over the mountains.Not to worry, we sleep much better and warmer in our tent than we do in the shelters. The sleet continues to fall and every so often we have to knock the accumulation off the roof of the tent. I just pray that I don't have to get up 3x in the night like I did a couple of weeks aboutbeyond the NOC. Until tomorrow....