Date: 2001-04-02
From: Black Hawk Shelter

To: Ramrock Mtn
Miles today: 11.9

Monday morning, 8am -- Well, I'm a little stiff but feeling better. I'm eating breakfast in bed (sausage and dried mangoes). It was cold last night. I woke up at 2a and took off my sweater as it felt warmer -- clouds had moved in. By 4:30a it started to rain so I threw up the 'mid. It rained for the rest of the night. It's mostly stopped now but when I woke up and put on my glasses, I saw snow around the edge of the megamid! Not a lot, but seeing any was a real surprise. No wonder I slept in my long johns, fleece pants, undershirt, wool shirt, sweater, hat and socks.Justus Creek, 1pm -- I've been resting my tootsies for about 20 minutes -- my longest break on the hike so far. There's some youth group here, too. They're all sitting on white trash bags and eating hot dogs and burgers off a grill. I don't know how they got a bag of briquets and jug of gatorade out here!Spent part of the day hiking along with August and Nutter, both swell people. I hope they make it all the way to Maine. Michelle, too, who was having such a hard time when I passed her on the trail. She seemed like such a nice person in the five minutes we talked. I hope I make as good an impression on people I so briefly meet.Part of that companionable hiking with August and Nuttere was spent sans shoes; a big relief, lemme tell you. I never did get around to replacing my hiking boots after I left them on BART, so I came to Georgia with my little leather Nike low-top hikers. While they're fine at home on dayhikes, they definitely are not working here. I don't know if my feet are swelling or what, but my toes are cramped on the downhills (and there are a lot of downhill stretches) and the sides are rubbing against my ankle bones, especially on my right foot, enough that I almost took out my pocket knife to saw off part of the shoe. Almost. I still might, because the top layers of skin are gone and it's oozy now. Blisters on my little and ring toes, big toes and index toes , balls of my feet. My miserable feet are slowing me down considerably. Fortunately, it's my only complaint -- well, and not having anything hot to eat in the dead of winter! When does spring get to this part of the country, anyway? And what are those little grey birds I see bustling about?From here it's only 2.5 miles to the Gooch Gap Shelter, so I think I'll go further along the trail before I stop for the night (August is headed to Gooch). Let's see where another five hours gets me.Ramrock Mtn, 6:10pm -- I feel better. I stopped about 5p, somewhere near the top of Ramrock Mtn -- shorter than I'd wanted, but my feet .... I wanted to get as close to Woody Gap today as I could so I would only have 10 miles to Neels Gap and fuel. But the trail was winding around the mountaintop and when I saw a good campsite, I capitulated. I set up the 'mid and pulled out my chowbag: I finished the last stump of my sausage and ate some dried apples and thought, tomorrow will be hard. In the non-cook pile of food I had one package of jerky, more dried apples and cherries, and the soy nuts, but hard sausage and dried fruit does not a happy GI tract make. And tomorrow's section has Blood Mtn, the high point on the AT in Georgia. I thought about all that plus my aching feet, and looked over at the fire ring. Ding! I collected a pile of scrap wood, got my pots 'n' pans and a bag of noodles, and hoped I could get a small fire going for four or five minutes to cook those darn noodles. I am happy to report that, thanks to some scrap paper and Al's storm matches, I am now full of hot cooked noodles -- I even have some tea I'm letting cool. I will drink my tea and eat some ginger candies, pee, and crawl into the 'mid for a long evening's slumber.In the megamid, 7:30pm -- I had just changed into my sleep clothes when a kid, a Lhasa Apso, and a mom come strolling by. "What's that?" the kid asks him mom (re my food bag hanging from a tree). "That's to keep it safe from dogs like that!" I said. Mom laughed. "How far thataway is ... anything?" I asked her. She said I was about half a mile from Hwy 60. The road and Woody Gap! If I leave around 9a tomorrow I should be in Neels Gap by 4 or 5p.