Date: 2005-02-10
From: Little Laurel Shelter

To: Flint Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: light snow

Weather today - Partly cloudy at first, followed by moderate snowfall and strong winds with fog. Temperature stayed pretty constant all day - between 25 and 27 degrees. Snow depth varied between 3-5 inches.On the trail hiking by 12:15pm (terrible!!!!)I opted to wear my rain/wind layer of top and bottom. I don't like to normally wear these items because I can get pretty hot under the material and it can be hard to vent out your body heat and not start sweating. My rain top does have vent zippers under the arms and on the sides - and they were wide open. Due to the snow fall and winds - it was wise to wear the outer layer.For the first time on this hike, feel like I have a touch of a head cold or sinus congestion. Not sure which, so I took one Tylenol and one Sinustab (figured I would cover "the bases" that way). I think it is just the change in the weather (it turned out it was).The first part of today's hike involved a 1,400 foot climb in elevation. Usually I don't want to know stuff like that - I'd rather just find out on my own as it happens. But given the snow falling, it was good to know.I had forgotten about the Blackstaff Cliffs being ahead. Even with the limited visibility, this section is a real delight to hike and view. You get to do some rock scrambling somewhat similar (on a lower scale) to those rocks while climbing Katahdin. And if the sky happens to be clear, you get a great view on either side.As you approach these cliffs, you will see a sign that gives you the option to take the AT (white blaze) trail over the cliffs; or a blue-blazed trail that bypasses the cliffs - a "bad weather" trail. If you know me you know I took the white-blaze route. Heck, the weather wasn't THAT bad. I got a picture of that sign (and a chuckle out of it). The picture is in my pictures on TJ.A bit further past the cliffs you will see a couple of burial headstones that have an interesting story behind them. During the Civil War there were two brothers from North Carolina who, for some reason, chose to fight on the side of the Union. When they came back home to North Carolina they were killed by unknown parties (I think that is how the story goes). You can see their burial spots as you hike past the markers.I got into my destination shelter, Flint Mountain Shelter, right after darkness has settled in - around 6:30pm. There was a tarp over the shelter entrance and I realized someone else was inside. Found "Jumble Jowls" (also known as "Steve Hiker") - a section hiker who was out for a week. Also inside were "Mountain Man" and "Mountain Dew".I'm not sure if I have mentioned Mountain Man/Mountain Dew before. Regardless, all of you who are reading this are destined to remember them into the future. Here is some of their story:Since I had started my thru-hike on January 3rd, I had heard (or read in the shelter registers) about a father/daughter team that called themselves Mountain Man and Mountain Dew. The daughter was supposed to be 13 years old and they had supposedly started a "thru-hike" back in November. As the story goes, part of their substanance came from catching the shelter mice and eating them. Now, I am assuming that they did cook them before eating them - but that is my assumption.Sure enough, when I met them this night, they seemed just a bit peculiar and interesting to both watch and listen to. Mountain Man spoke about past encounters with the "Federal Police" who had fired "rubber bullets" at him; and had interrogated him about Mountain Dew as they passed through the Smokey's. If you saw Mel Gibson in the movie "Conspiracy Theory" - you will get an idea of what I'm talking about.As the evening progressed, stranger things were heard and seen. I pretty much kept my mouth shut and just listened - sometimes the smartest thing to do in such a situation. In all honesty though, I never saw them eat any mice - although they did indeed have mouse traps and caught a couple in the shelter. Throughout the night, while I was trying to sleep, Mountain Man would constantly talk out loud to his daughter; apparently waking her up; and she would talk back. He said he was having trouble sleeping (by then, so was I). In the morning, Mountain Man announced he and his daughter would follow "Jumble Jowls" into Sam's Gap (along the trail that day) to head into Erwin for resupply. All three of them headed out of the shelter around 10:30am - and that was all I heard or saw of them for the time being (there is more to come, though).