Date: 2007-04-20
From: Groundhog Creek Shelter, NC

To: Roaring Fork Shelter, NC
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: overcast clouds

I slept 12 hrs last nite! It felt so good. I didn't have my sleeping bagzipped up all the way either. It was 45 degrees when I woke @ 7:00 a.m.I woke a few times in the nite and had never heard such a dense silence beforeout here. I mean ZERO sound. I almost felt like I had been transported to asolitary island by myself. It was cool.Then, as the sun rose, a symphony of bird calls began. I swear there had to be25 different birds all beckoning the sun to show its rays. I layed here andtried to pick out individual calls. One was almost a cackle, one was extremelyintricate and long, one had only 2 notes, and there were at least 2 woodpeckers. It was a gift to my ears to wake to such sounds. They always wake me in themorning, not the light, because I sleep with my knit cap pulled over my eyes. Iam going to miss this when my journey out here ends. I'm not thinking thosecheezy alarm clocks with the bird and ocean sounds will suffice once you've beenout here and woke to the real thing every morning. LOL I've been giving some thought as to what happiness means to me, the last fewdays. By now you all know $ isn't the answer for me. Now I am exploring typesof life work. I have the credentials to hop into (another) intense careertrack, where my energy and time are spent on big projects and writing papers andattending conferences and teaching. Sometimes I want for that again, because itdoes provide one with a sense of accomplishment and feeling that you arecontributing to society. The problem I find with it though, is that those typesof jobs consume your time like you have infinite amounts of it to give. Time, the greatest gift of all. We all have a pre-determined amount of time onthis Earth, our bodies will eventually die. I am most concerned with literallybeing aware of each moment I am presently experiencing, and finding peace andhappiness within each moment's moment. So far,I think I have discovered thatthe pace at which you move thru life makes a huge difference. This hike is teaching me this lesson all over again by making me aware of justhow much mental\physical\emotional resources I have to use each day. I need tofind something that allows me to feel as if I have not tapped them outcompletely at the end of each day. I can't be self-aware if I am so exhaustedthat my mind and body kick into survival mode like I was in the day we hiked outof the Smoky's (and which was why I broke down when I found out there was noheat..I had nothing left to help me deal with the circumstances). I am happiest when I feel like I have an excess of time in my day (which reallydoesn't exist) but it is when I feel like I can stop and enjoy somethingbeautiful without being late to a meeting and risking my job or something. Ialso want to be able to give attention to my physical\emotional\mental selveseveryday and be healthy. Right now, the way our culture is structured, I'd haveto sleep 2 hours a nite to accomplish all of this AND work.Then add the next layer, creating a work environment and surrounding yourselfwith people that you love and genuinely care for. I have never worked in aplace like this yet. I have had parts of it (my good friend Tim and hiswonderful family for example). Rachael has had this though, The WildforkRestaurant in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I was stunned because I had never seen a placeoperate like this, and I have never forgotten it. Yes, business was business,but the owners genuinely cared for their employees to a deeper level than most. It was a safe place.I want that, but feel like I may need to create it for myself someday in my ownbusiness. Not sure yet. So that's where I'm at in figuring out what I want todo when I grow up. LOL I finally got up at 9:00 a.m., only because my starving stomach wouldn't let melay there anymore. Had a GREAT conversation with two other 30-somethings named TK-Express, theawesome couple from Seattle about what we all think about jobs and $.I made some hot tea, and we lolli-gagged around and finally started hiking @12:10 p.m. Man was it nice to just chill out, and this is a really nice spot todo it.Today was just one of those amazing days out here. The sun was out, it got intothe low 60's (the international sign that it is warm enough is when Persistenttakes her long sleeved shirt off by the way and hikes in short sleeves! LOL)The hiking wasn't all that easy. North Carolina tends to have you go straightup mountains, so there were some steep climbs. Steepest we've had since beforethe Smoky's. I felt really good though. Persistent is fighting a cold, so shewas sluggish. I feel bad for her.Today was wildlife day. We stopped to eat lunch @ Hawks Roost, NC, which was alookout that below was a watershed control area or something. I wasstarving...again. (I think the hiker appetite is starting to kick in folks).Just after we started hiking, I was leading going down into Brown Gap, andnearly stepped on a 15" snake that was just lying across the trail sunbathing! It had a pink forked tongue, so I don't think it was dangerous. She letPersistent and I get pretty close for some great pics. Then she started gettingannoyed because we only cared about her body, not her brains, so she slitheredoff under a rock. LOL She was beautiful though.We continued on to Brown Gap, which was supposed to have water. All we foundwas a drainage pipe going under the forest service road, so we didn't have choice. We had a bunch of climbing ahead of us, and I was totally out of water.Just before Brown Gap, we met Critter, another female hiker who is doing asection hike with her dad (Critter's Dad whom we met @ Brown Gap). She was verynice, and she asked us about our experience @ Standing Bear Farm Hostel (as didher dad later on). Apparently we weren't the oly ones with a bad vibe from theplace. Critter's dad is a thru hiker by the way.We started up, up up out of Brown Gap. Persistent did it again, she provided mewith a quote of the day.. As we were climbing and looking at the hill ahead, shegoes, "Just look at it. It looks like a wall!" LOL She was right, it feltlike one too!Then something amazing happened.I am a bit ahead of Persistent, and all of a sudden a huge bird swoops down infront of me and lands on a tree about 50 ft. off the trail. I'm like, "What wasthat?" I stopped and saw it was an owl!! These birds are huge, so I snapped apic from my distant location. I dropped my poles and slowly walked towards it,each time taking a closer and closer picture. Finally, this beautiful big owl allowed me within 4 feet of the tree it was on! I have a progression of incredible pics! I stood there, and this owl and Ilooked directly into each other's eyes! My gosh, it was unbelievable, a veryspiritual moment for me. I said hello and smiled at it. Its deep black eyesand stare were so intense. By this time, Persistent caught up and she was on the trail still. She slowlymade her way closer, but she got about halfway to me and the owl flew off. Geez, I just couldn't believe I got that close in the middle of the afternoon. It was about 3:00 p.m.So we keep hiking and we can see one of the major trail icons we have both beendreaming of seeing, Max Patch. It is a 4,629 ft. tall mountain in which the topis a huge bald (now maintained that way) with 360 degree views! We are at thebottom with only .8 miles to get to the top. There is a great water sourceright before you start climbing, but it is not listed in the Companion.We had intentions of dry camping up there, so I wanted to take some additionalwater. I decided to fill up my canteens and put 3 more liters in my watertank. As we were getting water, a tadpole that was in the stage of having a frog headwith a long body and tiny feet, was in the water. I also got a great pic of it!Persistet was laughing @ me, because I had this extra water attached to the backof my pack. I was now carrying 10lbs just in water! LOLWe started up and I'm looking at the hanging situation, because you can't hang ahammock with zero trees. We wind around and there is a bit of snow on the dark side of the mountain. Upand up and then LAAAAAAA! We start seeing some incredible views. You keepwinding around until you finally reach the summit, and I was speechless. 360degree views of mountains surrounding us! I don't have words to describe itother than surreal. When we got up there, it was in the 40's, because the wind was blowing. Iwasn't 100% sure where I would hang, but I was planning on descending some andseeing what I could find. Persistent wasn't feeling that hot, and yes, it wasalready cold and windy, so we came up with plan B.It was 6:00 p.m, and we decided we would eat dinner up there and watch thesunset around 8:00 p.m. , then nite hike to the next shelter which was oly 1.8miles away. So we spent 2 hrs up there, and took a ton of great pics. God was it beautiful. At one point, it brought tears to my eyes (I'm turning into quite the weepy gal,but I can't convey to you how emotional these experiences are for me). Tonite also marked the first time both Persistent and I ate 2 dinners each! Today was the first day I was starving for all of my meals, and even as I typethis @ 11:35 p.m., I am starving...again! LOLSo about the sunset. WOW! The sun dipped and the sky went from white, to grey,to pinkish, and then the sun went behind a thick layer of clouds which made itturn into a deep fusia almost. I have pics of all of this, but the mountainsseemed to come out of hiding as the sun descended. I could see more layers thatwere not visible before. A sliver of moon was also shining. The sky wascrystal cleat up above us.At 8:15 p.m, we were finally content, so we threw our packs on and headed down. We had that entire montaintop to ourselves. It was the sunset I had beendreaming of watching for over a year now, and we did it. We hiked 250.9 milesfrom Georgia to sit on top of Max Patch and watch the sunset. So good news for hammock hangers. Upon starting down Max Patch, about .2-.3miles down you hit trees again, and there are a ton of great spots for hangingat the moment you hit trees! So if you want to spend the nite, just set up downthere and it is a quick and easy hike back up to the summit for sunset\sunrise,star gazing, etc.! (my other suggestion was going to be asking that we start apetition to ask the trail maintaining club to install posts with eye bolts inthem on top, so we could hang! LOL) So we head down and it is getting dark. Another great water source is at thevery bottom by the way, which also is not in the Companion.We end up in these very closed in and dark creepy Rhodadendrun tunnels, and Istarted doing my evil laugh. It felt like we were in some haunted house, andthen suddenly...FLAP FLAP FLAP...A bird flew away just feet from us. It made mejump and then laugh. Persistent asked me to keep talking so I'd scare any bearsaway. I told her there weren't any bears. (hey, they don't call me Certain fornothing! LOL)We get to a forest road and start down it.....UH OH! Where are the white blazes? By this time we are hiking with our headlamps on. We think we see a whiteblaze, so we keep going and end up on a trail to some ridge. We both agree, wethink we're on the wrong trail, so we turn around and hike back to the lastwhiteblaze we see (I'm laughing of course). Come to find out, what we thoughtwas a blaze before wasn't. Birch trees peel bark in odd ways, and it was abizarre coincidence that this tree had a white spot exposed that was almost theexact dimensions of a blaze!I remembered we definitely saw one on a fence further back, so we went there. Come to find out, the place we turned slight right and started on the forestservice road, the trail crossed the road and there were blazes everywhere overthere! Neither of us saw them @ nite though!Now who was leading you ask? NOT ME! LOL I told Persistent that was 1, and shedenies having any part in getting us lost, and then starts fabricating storiesto support it! The last thing out of her mouth was, "I think it was yourfault!" LOL See what I am dealing with out here! LOLWe finally get to the shelter @ 9:20 p.m. I am hanging a good distance from it,but there was only 1 spot Persistent could pitch her tent, right next to theshelter. The sky is full of stars, and I gazed for a bit, but had to get all bundled upas it is was 38 degrees when I first crawled in here. I am trying to use my bagas a quilt tonite to see what happens. Zero wind though, that's good. It was one of the most memorable days I've had out here. I feel happy, content,exhausted and of course, hungry now. Asta la Vista fat rolls, I told you, you'dbe going bye bye! LOL ~Certain