Date: 2006-04-22
From: Standing Indian

To: Carter Gap
Miles today: 7.6
Weather: light rain

According to the NOAA weather band that Homebrew had on his radio the rain was going to stop around noonish. So I decided to head out for the Carter Gap shelter and up the Standing Indian mountain in the morning so I'd have the better part of the afternoon to dry out my gear. The plan worked pretty well(woohoo). The morning's climb wasn't all that fun. Basically, it was a hike up a stream bed. But the rain was pretty light and no lightning that I noticed. I also happened across a cool little salamander(Sorry no pictures yet) right in the middle of the trail.I got to the Carter Gap shelter in good time and ate lunch. Stopping for lunch in wet clothes and with wind cooled me down real fast though. The shelter was also in pretty bad shape, decent, but no where near as nice as the other shelters I've stayed at. So I told Little Debbies that I was going to go for the Big Spring shelter instead and hit the trail again.After I got back on the trail and went about 50 feet I saw a little sign "Shelter ->" and thought, "HUH!? I was just at the shelter." I decided to check it out. As it turns out, it was the new shelter! Jackpot, 10x better than the other one. So I parked my gear and went back to the other shelter and told Joe and Little Debbies about my find. Very quickly I scratched my plans for Big Spring and set out to do some country laundry: clothes on the branches everywhere, haha, and to pitch the tent so that it could dry out.(Carrying a wet tent is bad mmmkay)Homebrew & Forest, and John all stayed at the shelter that night. Little Debbies and Joe pressed onwards. I think Little Debbies was eager for town and also just wanted to do some more miles. Joe was trying to catch up with some friend in spite of objections from his feet and legs. I hope he does end up paying for it in the long run. Anyhow, Homebrew (so named for the home brewing supply store he runs in Fayette's(?), GA, and Forest(I'd guess for the interest in conversation etc...) are a father & son duo. Homebrew has permission from the boss(wife) to be on the trail for 6 weeks(or longer) and Forest is going to go as far as he wants. They've done a lot of outdoor type of stuff is sounds like; fishing in Alaska and hiking in various places. Homebrew grew up in MA right near(on?) the trail practically. He said that he help construct part of the trail up there as well. John is a retired(?) photo-journalist / professor. He last taught in Dubai, UAE and a newly founded all women's university. He freelanced for 2 years early in his career then moved into newspaper graphics / journalism / photography (Not sure which papers though). He's also writing a biography about a photographer that specialized in Food shots. He's pretty cool and has many hiking stories from his previous AT trip and other hikes. E.g. The Jewish opossum: (short version): He and some friends did a unplanned weekend trip to a place he know about. They forgot a few things, like a flashlight...and got in after dark. During the night he heard an animal nosing through the food bags. Unable to see, and unsure what the animal was, he thought it best not to confront it. In the morning they discovered that all of the food was unscathed(Eggs, bacon, etc...) except for the Kosher Rye bread which was over half eaten. (He identified it as a opossum by the tracks in case you're wondering.)