Date: 2005-04-14
From: Sassafras Gap Shelter

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

Most of my clothes were dry by this morning. Today is looking much better than yesterday. I had grand plans of making myself a vanilla latte using my vanilla nutrient drink and a coffee single. So I heat my water to boiling, put in the coffee single and dump the ziplock bag in. After all the white powder falls in I notice the words "dry milk" written upside down on the bag. Well, there went all my creamer damnit. I had a full house to witness the glorious event too since we were all taking our sweet time to get out of there. Cold mornings and wet clothes will do that. This guy Ug, who stayed there lastnight, and I chilled this morning. He's a total hippie form Florida. A very odd character actually. I could totally see Katie going for him (he's brash like you) ((in an entertaining way, not a bad way)). Anyway, I was once again the last to leave and got to meet some new faces because of it - like She-ra. That's the coolest name I've heard yet. She's been hiking with some ultra fast guys so I went up to say hello to everyone. Guess who was with them....Kelly! It was so awesome seeing him again. His mom had sent him some goods in Franklin so we chilled for a bit on the trail and guess who else walks up.... Dennis, the guy from Jersey. I'd never thought I'd see him again. So I introduced the two and they ended up speeding way ahead of me. I've been really struggling on the uphills because my allergies are getting very bad. It feels like I have asthma. I walked up to Cheoah Bald (my 1st bald) and relaxed and ate a snack. I took it slow so the hike was rather nice and relaxing. Sometime late this afternoon I made it to Stecoah Gap (NC143) - not even the halfway point for the day. I took a short nap on top of the picnic table (which I'm sure looked odd to the people driving on the highway) and then ate the best lunch ever! I had two tuna melts that were delicious. I took a tuna packet, put in a couple McDonald's mayonaise packets and mixed in my Italian Seasoning. It was a hot day so my cheese was pretty softened. All this went on my last two sweet onion rolls. I think I was there for a good hour plus. A gentleman pulled up excited to see real thru-hikers (two more had joined me at the end of lunch - Buzz and Matt). He gave us each a banana which made the perfect dessert. How nice of him. I pressed on and eventually made it to Brown Fork Gap Shelter where Matt, Buzz, and Swingin' Jane & Simon were taking up residence for the night. I'd seen Swingin' Jane's register entries and was glad to finally meet her and her incredibly sweet well-behaved lab, Simon. The privy here is SO much better than at Sassafras Shelter. This privy has one wall (facing the back of the shelter) with 3 open sides and a gorgeous mountain view. The one at Sassafras was a freakin' outhouse - enclosed, cramped and a broken toilet seat over a hole in the ground. We were all making fun of it at the last shelter, I had heard Georgia had nice privies, but seriously NC! When Swingin' Jane found out I was Saxy Lady she too was excited to meet me and then told me all my friends had moved on to one of the gaps. So even though it was like 7 o'clock I pressed on. I had three miles to go. The first two miles were wonderful and it got so dark I had to put on my headlamp. I was singing the whole time (something I've been doing a lot lately with the lack of radio). All of a sudden I got to a giant fallen tree. It was covering so much of the path I thought maybe I had missed a bypass around it. I walked backwards for a bit to gauge the white blaze situation and couldn't see anything so I turned around to head back to the the tree. As I turned around I was in a giant mud puddle and wiped out. I was covered in mud. This was too much for me at night. I finally made it over and under and over - weaving through the branches and continued on the rocky path. Up ahead I stepped on a loose rock, lost balance, and fell on my knees. That one hurt real bad. I almost cried for the first time because I was so shooken up by the chain of events. I couldn't even sing to lift my spirits. I finally rolled into Cody Gap around 10ish I think and set up my tent. It's been a very very long day and I'm glad it's finally over.