Date: 2003-05-05
From: Cosby Knob Shelter

To: Standing Bear Farm
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: light rain

Wet, wet, wet, wet, wet, wet. And that's all I can say about that...The rain and lightning started in the night and by morning it had increased. And then it continued to increase. And it wasn't a drizzle. It wasn't the type of rain that has you sticking your hand out and saying 'I think it's raining'. No. This was the type of rain that brings you over to the door to ogle in wonder at the sheets and say 'wow, it's really raining outside' before you go back to your pillowy arm chair to smoke a pipe and read yankee magazine. It was the type of rain that will soak you on your mad dash from the grocery store to your car. This was the type of rain that has you turning up the volume on your tv so you can hear over the vicious batter on the roof. You get the point. It was raining WICKED HAAD. We did breakfast in the shelter while I stared hesitantly at the sopping tent down below that would soon have to deal with.Erin headed out a little before me while I took care of the tent and a few other things.The rain let up and then stopped all together about one hour into the hike. Everything cleared and you could see the vistas without the smog. The clouds rushed overhead and the wind picked up blowing the rhododendron leaves and exposing their light underbellies. It was great. The wind picked up a little more as did my pace. I was trying to catch erin. I kept expecting to see her around the next corner but she never materialized. The wind was really blowing now. 8 miles later I finally got to Davenport Gap to find Erin. I had never caught up to her despite doing the last 3 miles in the minutes. She hauled ass! With wet feet we walked 1.5 miles down a dirt road to a little Bible Thumping hole in the wall called Mountain Momma's to pick up our food drop. The rain started in again like it was making up for lost time on the brief interlude while we hiked.The woman at Mountain Momma's did not seem pleased to see us and immediately informed us that we couldn't bring our bags inside out of the rain and that we couldn't open our package in the store. Erin and I asked for a chicken sandwich, the sign said they were open till 5:00. She stared at me for a while and the said in a really grumpy tone. "We close at 4:30." I looked at my watch. It was 4:05. "I guess I can make you one." Behind her was one of the neon sign bars. The kind where the message starts from the right and disappears into the left. It said 'Jesus saves'. Over and over. It was kind of hypnotizing. We asked about the shuttle back up to the trail head. She said the last one is leaving at 5:00 so we had to stuff the food down our throats. Stuff our food back into the top of my pack without even getting to look at it then get rushed up back the road and thrown back out into the rain. (Which had gotten worse) The shuttle woman told us that the county was in a severe weather alert and Tornado alert for the next 38 hours. And that the weather was forcast to keep up until sunday. It was only Monday.We were out of the smokies and now entering a new forest called Pisgah National Forest. Just before you entered there is a little sign warning you to 'watch out' for falling trees. I guess an asian beetle is destroying the trees and making them weak. Immediately we could see signs of devistation. The bark was torn from the trees and there was alot of fresh dead fall. A while later we were spit out at the on ramp of I40. We took refuge under the bridge and took the time to wring out our socks. We were drenched through and through.The rain fell harder. The trail was just another outlet for the swollen rivers and runoff. Erin and I dubbed portions the Appalachian River and Appalachian Falls. We crossed some fast moving streams, one of them just before a 20 foot water fall. Kind of dangerous. I saw a tree as thick as four full grown men tip over and crash into the forest. Everywhere you could hear the crack of branches. Lighting rattled overhead. We were scared out of pants. Scurrying through the mud and water as fast as our feet would take us. We finally saw the sign for Standing Bear Farm on the other side of a wildly dangerous river. We had to bushwack about .2 miles and slide down a steep muddy embankment to find land to find a landbridge over the river.When we got there we found Fat Man and Patty, Crowdog and Prarie chicken, and John there along with many other soaked hikers drinking bear, eating pizza, and listening to the radio. Now that was a nice site to see...Hung out deep into the night then went to sleep in a dry bunkhouse listening to the rain outside.