Date: 2005-04-19
From: Little Laurel Shelter, (NC/TN?)

To: Flint Mountain Shelter, (NC/TN?)
Miles today: 12.7

Steep up in AM ¢ only 1.3 miles to the firetower sidetrail up on Camp Creek Bald, but seemed like an eternal 1.3. The firetower was a bizarre one, surrounded by buzzing industrial-type structures and lots of barbed wire, leading to Alcatraz jokes. But lots of lovely overlooks at the cliffs past the towers, and Serenity, Freedom, Thatch, the Gypsy Sisters, Pacman, Ranger and I passed around dried fruit and took long breaks looking out over the valleys. And yet more beautiful weather! But shortly before Jerry Cabin Shelter, my right knee started shrieking. This was perturbing ¢ my knees hadn¢t given much trouble in a while. I threw myself in the grass at the shelter, eating lunch and trying to figure what to do now about the knee. And I realized the main problem was that the bionic braces are just too big. They¢ve always been adjusted to the maximum, with the straps pulled down as tight as possible, but they¢re designed for adult male legs, and I am both short and female, and I¢ve walked three hundred miles since I first started wearing them, and my legs have toned up a little, and the braces slide down all day long ¢ no wonder the knee is acting up. So I came up with an effective, if inelegant, fix: by wrapping an extra sock around each knee before putting the bionic knees on, I add enough padding to hold the braces in place. It¢s all relative, I figure: I look pretty ridiculous to begin with, so the socks are just a matter of degree. A badge of pride. I¢ll wrap my dirty extra socks around my knees if it¢ll keep me going! Would YOU?While breaking, CJ and Weatherman and Scholar and Nick and Dave showed up. Turned out to be Dave¢s birthday, so I gave him some dried peaches ¢ not much in the grand scheme, I realize, but a decent in-a-pinch gift from a hiker, I¢d like to think. A little later, and with the jury-rigged bionic knees, Touk and Linux and Pacman and I pushed on towards the Flint Mountain Shelter. We crossed the 300 mile mark just prior to Shelton Graves (another fine deadblazing opportunity), a memorial somewhat odd for commemorating a boy who died at the age of thirteen but which was still allegedly erected by the boy¢s descendants. So either ¢descendants¢ are in this case somewhat laterally construed, or else boy got it on early. The final descent into Flint Gap was a pretty nasty one, but I was happily distracted by good conversation with Touk and arrived at the shelter before dark, satisfied. Gypsy, Cyclehiker, Nick, Dave, and Ranger were already there. I was going to cowboy camp, but the sky looked a little suspicious, so I crammed into the shelter, and a very loud weekend hiker blathered all night long.Essential vocabulary:Packsniffers: (earliest known usage attributed to Tater, 4/05) n. 1) Those trail angels or hiking enthusiasts who appear weirdly dependent on their connections to the hiking community to underscore their own egos; 2) anyone. (ed. note: Packsniffery is in the eye of the beholder. A term delightful for being wholly unnecessarily derogatory.) Knob: (cf Gap.) n. An unpleasant or insufferable individual; a poser; a tool. ¢Don¢t be such a knob.¢ Gap: (cf Knob) n. An unpleasant or insufferable individual; a poser; a tool. (as from ¢gap,¢ a deep notch between mountains generally involving a steep descent followed by a steep ascent. An inverted knob.) ¢He¢s a total gap.¢Ridge, also Phlatt: (ant. knobbish, gappish) adj. Spectacular, worthy of approbation, jolly good. (as from ¢ridge¢, an elevated and generally easily walkable geological formation) ¢That¢s so ridge!¢