Date: 2019-04-10
From: Max Patch summit

To: Walnut Mountain shelter
Miles today: 6.7
Weather: overcast clouds

The stars were out in force last night, though still no Milky Way. Too much light pollution from eastern Tennessee. Still, the starlight alone is enough to navigate the bald for a late night pee.  I wake to the sounds of a group of tittering college girls nearby waiting for the sunrise and taking selfies. I join Tiny, Sea Legs, Tripod and soon Blue Eyes to watch the fiery sunrise over the western Carolina mountains. It is spectular. The colors change constantly, shadows and golden highlights play off the ripples in the western hills, while the hues of the silhouetted hills to the east make them look two-dimensional.The price of camping on a meadow without a rain fly is condensation all over my sleeping bag and tent. Since I'm waiting for my friends to catch up, they get a few hours in the morning sun to dry out. There's a trail magic iced tea - unsweetened! - left over from last night so I enjoy that with an English muffin offered by Blue Eyes. I neglected to mention yesterday meeting Pocket Pussy, a hiker who carries a cat in his jacket pocket. When I met him resting on trail the cat was wandering around, looking as clean and nonchalant as any housecat. I learn today the cat woke up ill and he got off trail to find a vet. First cat I've ever heard of hiking the trail.Around 10:30 Clammy rolls up from the shelter. It's too bad he missed last night, it was his kind of scene. We make a plan to go slow to Hot Springs today and tomorrow then zero Friday. The crew wants to recuperate from their back-to-back twenties. A day of town food and fresh laundry sounds good to me. By now I've decided pushing hard to make Damascus before Easter isn't wise and certainly wouldn't be any fun. Wherever we get to by next Friday, I'll need to return to later for a short final lap to Damascus.Lunch is at Roaring Fork shelter two miles further. We work on our barbershop quartet harmony and lyrics to an ode to Jamie Lee Curtis yogurt. It keeps you regular...one of many inside jokes in our trail family.I'm hiking less than seven miles today - 13 for my friends who didn't hike to Max Patch last night. This is my shortest day ever without coming out of or going into town. I have visions of pizza and cheeseburgers and need to be talked down from hiking the 20 miles into Hot Springs before dinner. It's a gorgeous day. Just enjoy being out in nature. You don't need to set any speed records. Sigh!The clincher that keeps my food-motivated hiking in check is trail magic at Lemon Gap from a Bible study group at the Crossroads Community Church from Newport, TN. Hot dogs, grapes, oranges, chips, and tea! They've served over 40 hikers today, but are getting ready to leave, so I pack out two PB&J sandwiches, four oranges, and cookies for dinner. Which turns out to be fortunate as I later lend my fuel to Yellowjacket and it burns out after two minutes, so the dinners I packed would have been inedible.We get up to Walnut Mountain shelter around 2. It's a lazy afternoon, arranging stuff, chatting, drying socks, gathering firewood. Eventually an old man hikes in, very slowly, with an old Kelty backpack, and two small dogs following him.He's nearly deaf so conversation is hard. But we learn he's been hiking since 1949, has thruhiked the AT both northbound and southbound, as well as extensively in Japan, Korea, and the Blue Ridge. He must be 90 years old. His Chihuahua has two AT dog tags - one for each thruhike the dog has completed!He keeps to himself in the shelter making dinner on a skillet while we gather around the fire. After twenty minutes or so he comes out and gives us a platter of grilled sirloin steak! And steak sauce to boot. I've already eaten my PB&J sandwiches but this is too good to pass up. And he tops it off by passing around cookies. He's just out for the night. It seems like he may be here just to be our trail angel. Amazing guy. I think he said his name was Bernard.At the fire circle are Yellowjacket, Wild Card, Scrub-a-Dub, Scarecrow (renamed Go-gurt), Tin Can, Fast Lane, UNICEF, Clammy, and J-Stroke. The last is a NY/Boston native who loves paddling sports. Tenting nearby are NH natives Puke-y and Doc.We walk up the hill to a meadow on Walnut Mountain to watch the setting sun. Riggins the dog still has lots of energy. Then into the shelter for bed. The two little dogs curl up inside the old man's sleeping bag.