Date: 2004-04-05
From: Sassafras Gap Shelter

To: Cody Gap Campsite
Miles today: 11.9
Weather: clear sky

As the price for the clear sky showing off a brilliant full moon last night, it was 24 degrees this morning. Brrrrrrrr!Thanks to daylight savings time I only got going at 8:00 am. Funny thing, it was not a bit brighter outside than 7:00 am was a few days ago! The first order of business was getting over 5,000 foot high Cheoah Bald. It seemed to take forever but in compensation it actually had a large-ish grassy patch on one side of the top. Finally a bald that was bald. It was even colder up there with lots of patches of snow and for a stretch on the north side even the Trail was still covered in snow. Add in a chilly wind and I felt envious of the little village I saw far below surounded by nice warm green fields.My envy turned to horror a few hours later when I realized the Trail was heading nearly all the way down to that village at Stecoah Gap and that I would have to climb all the way back up to the ridgetop on the other side. Bleah! Still, it brought a reward. A section hiker who had shared the shelter mentioned this morning that he had left some oranges on a picnic table for us. Sure enough, there were three left. Trail Magic! In true thru-hiker spirit I chose the one that had rolled onto the ground. Tradition says that a real Thru-hiker will pick up anything edible off the ground without a second thought and eat it. I did not have enough thru-hiker appetite to eat the shreds of Hostess cupcake near the table, but I courteously refrained from stepping on them in case someone after me was that ravenous.Another hour and a half saw me back up on the ridgeline and after passing another peak I could finally see stretches of Fontana Lake, at the head of which I planned to find a warm dry bed, shower, rest and lots of real food. In sight beyond were the high snow-covered peaks of the Smokey Mountain, my next challenge.I got to Brown Fork Shelter at 2:00 pm. I was not tired and it was the most uncomfortable looking shelter I had seen yet. An old log shelter, it's sleeping platform was waist high. Even with the platform and about two feet in front of it was a gigantic log. One could not get in or out of bed without clampering over the log. Lovely!Without regret I headed about 3 miles further up the Trail to Cody Gap. Here there was water and probably a campsite. Sure enough, when I got there at 4:20 pm I found both. Granted, the tentsite had a fair wind blowing through it and the water was far below in a meadow choked with poison ivy, but you can't have everything.About an hour later Katie arrived along with an Australian trail named Ozzie. He decided to go on but Katie stayed, giving us a little two-woman village. About 6:00 a man named Rambler arrived all the way from NOC! According to him everyone else from our shelter was behind us, some having started as late as 11:00 am. Maybe this will be where they all stop for the night.It is 7:10 pm. Stretch has decided to tent here, Two Cents from Israel decided to go on after giving us all his candy bars so he would not have them during Passover. I have decided to name our little hamlet Mouseville and as the Mayor I am decreeing that there be a $50 tent fee to stay and a 3 candybar toll to pass through. Our little stretch of Trail going through the center of town is now the Mouseville Turnpike. Katie says "Sounds like a plan!", so with a majority vote the motions carry. Now to lay in wait in our sleeping bags for new victims, oops, I mean new citizens and travelers.8:20 and Mouseville now has four residents, three of them women. It even has a psychiatrist!