Date: 2004-04-29
From: chillsville usa

To: pine laden unaka mountain
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: broken clouds

my favorite, favorite, favorite. ms janet's biscuits and gravy to start the day. it was the first time in my stay that we did breakfast proper, all seated around the picnic tables in the backyard on a sunny morning, chatting and passing deliscious food. relaxed and great. feels like home. thanks janet. i will be back.hit the trail around noon, and started walking happy and full down a nice trail along a lush creek . sweet smell in the air, surrounded by rich full greens, sound of rushing water. i love the ridges, but i do wish there was more of this on the AT, but it is commited to the ridges and peaks and thats fine, i will take what i can get. as i am cruising absorbing the scenery i hear someone yell an insult from behind. aww its joe flamingo. what up beeatch. reunited and it feels so good. this guy really is about as close as ive come to having a hiking partner in some time, a brother, he makes the trip feel more complete. aw shucks. so we hiked together exchanging stories of the past five or six days, and suddenly it was good-bye creek, we were climbing hard out of there and would continue to do so for about ten miles. no sweat. its what we do.7 miles in we reached the beauty spot, another great bald. i am just feeling like i am doing something right when i am laying against my pack in the grass munching on nutella on a bagel gazing at the valleys 3000 feet below and at jagged blue distant ridges, laughing with flamingo and wooly, getting sun. i looked over at wooly with his black shirt, green suspenders, green visor over jet black hair, and joe flamingo with his red hat, green pack, and royal blue t shirt against the backdrop of a rolling green summit and a blue sky, the afternoon light making thier faces glow orange. or maybe it was just the moment. another good one.the thing about this trail, this trip, is the surprises. every day is a view or a creek or weather you never could expect. new people. it just unfolds wonder one moment and one footstep at a time. so here me and flamingo are with three miles left to the shelter hitting the final push up unaka mountain. we get into astute tall pines. tall thin elders allowing only a few rays of sunlight to the soft pine needle floor. "man," i say to joe, "this would be the dope spot to camp." but we are short on water. we'll have to settle for this excellent walk. "yea milo!"and a little louder"yea, joe flamingo!""libber?""what the hell are you doing man!""aw sh***""yeah buddy!"there he is, his hamock set up in the perfect campsite, surrounded by these pines, a small fire crackling. last we knew libber was 3 days ahead of us. turns out he decided to do a section going south just for fun. so we take off our packs and smile like hell and talk up a damn storm, laughing at circumstance and this crazy life, and i mean come on, there is no other option. we are camping here.we walked a half mile north, downhill, on the AT to get water and then turned around and climbed the mountain again to return to the campsite. hikers dont do that. and we laugh like hell around the fire until 10:30. hikers dont stay up that late. we talked about this freedom we have, like we are kids. libber says its only a matter of time before he starts hiking in a bathrobe. i give him serious support, suggesting he hike also in flip flops and aviator glasses. i tell him shenandoah national park will be the perfect place. we all laugh like hell. this trip is whatever we want it to be and shoot, for the three of us it couldnt be better. i go to sleep smiling on the perfect, perfect bed of soft pine needles.