Date: 2007-03-28
From: Rock Gap Shelter, NC

To: Franklin, NC
Miles today: 3.8
Weather: clear sky

Well, last night confirmed my belief that shelters don't compare to good ole'stealth or non-shelter campsites. The noises coming from that shelter werejust hilarious. On that note, all of you reading this who have not been inthis type of environment need to understand that once you get out here, thenormal rules of etiquette that "civilized" people follow kind of go out thewindow when it comes to bodily functions and changing clothes, etc. You dowhat you gotta do and no one cares. I like it that way, everyone seems so muchmore "real."I did end up lowering the foot end of my hammock, I was getting a head rushbecause I was on such a decline! LOL After the adjustment, it was good enoughfor me to fall into a deep slumber (after the snoring and farting soundsstopped). Sound really carries in the woods! LOLI woke up at 6:30 a.m. and journaled some, then everyone started stirring around7:00, so I hopped up and changed clothes real quick. Brrr, it was a REALLYhumid night, so my clothes were very damp and the temps were around 52, but Ialso know it only means a few moments of discomfort, because once I startmoving around, I warm up pretty quickly.Everyone was ready to get going because most of us were headed into Franklin tostay at the Haven Budget Motel. Nicole and I got going at a record breaking8:30 a.m.! Our earliest start yet! We both agreed that this town stop wasdifferent from Hiawassee though, in that we didn't feel a huge overwhelmingurge to be back in the comforts of modern conveniences. She said she didn'teven care if she showered! haa haa I, did want to shower though, but don'tfeel like I need a day of down time to reenergize like in Hiawassee. I'mgetting really comfortable out there now, and that's a good sign. One stepcloser to assimilating to the lifestyle of a long distance hiker.I've been meaning to write about something cool that I learned about. I noticedwhile hiking I'd see this little piles of what looked like hair. I assumed itwas parts of an old bird's nest, but after talking to others who know more thanme, I learned they are called owl pellets. Apparently when owls eat mice orrabbits, they can't digest the hair and skeletons, so they essentially cough upthese hairballs. They are all over the place, which now confirms the echoingcalls I hear everynite are owls. It's really awesome. Someone told me if youtear the hairball apart, you can find pieces of bone in it. I think I'm goingto try it this week and take a pic of what I find! (I know I know...thissounds disgusting, but I feel like a kid on the coolest science trip ever outhere!)So we had 3.8 miles to go, one pretty easy hump to get over in order to reachWinding Stair Gap, where Ron Haven shows up everyday at 9 and 11 to shuttlehikers into town. Nicole and I made it in a record breaking 2 hrs and arrivedat this parking area around 10:30 a.m. It wasn't without some cool andhilarious things happening during the hike though.Just as we were hiking up from a road crossing from a local campground, we wereapproaching a stream and someone had put a bunch of Capri Suns in it! YUMMY!!! I had a Fruit Punch and Nicole had a Strawberry. I'd always read about this onother's journals, but it is so cool when it happens to you.Then, Nicole and I were blazing down the trail, and she was blowing (yetanother) snot rocket (which is what I want to name her, but she won't let me),and she carries this "snot rag" in her right pocket (which is just a bandana). Well, she realized she lost it, and oh boy...did the pouting start! LOL Whatwill she do without her snot rocket rag!? She kept hiking on though, like atrooper, despite her loss.Then, Nicole said the quote of the day, "I hate it when there are uphills on thedownhills!" LOL We were supposedly going "down" the mountain, but some upswere involved, and it just cracked me up when she said that.So we finally reached Winding Stair Gap where Not Guilty and Totally DifferentSubject were chilling out too. Others were already gone and a few people had afriend come to get them. We told them we were cool with just chilling. Icalled Rachael and then Nicole and I went over to hang with Not Guilty andT.D.S. These 2 guys are super cool and come to find out, T.D.S. and I are bothfrom Oklahoma and we even know a common person!!! WEIRD!!! We were all justchillin and some dude drives up in his nice SUV and asked us if we werethru-hikers. We said yup, and he offered to drive all of us into town! Wesaid cool!Lance was his name. Very nice guy who hopes someday to thru hike as well. Hehas 3 kids and takes them day hiking in this area. THANKS LANCE!!! He droppedus off at the Haven Budget Inn, where there was only 1 room left! Not Guiltyand T.D.S. decided to go on to Ron's other hotel, The Sapphire Inn, and Nicoleand I took the last room here. Awesome place that totally takes care of hikersand for so little money I can't believe Ron can afford to keep the placerunning. He obviously loves what he does, and it is so appreciated. He'ssitting next to me right now and just showed me this awesome website (that HEbuilt) called www.appalachiantrailservices.comIf you want info about services, weather, road crossing, town maps, ATM's,medical facilities, freakin EVERYTHING, this is a GREAT resource! Ron took 6months to build the site, it's all interactive, links to all business/servicewebpages and everything! I hadn't seen it before now, and he just gave me thetour of the site. Seriously...check it out, it's even better than theguidebooks!So, anyway, we get into our room and all we can think about is CHINESE!! We gotcleaned up (great water pressure at this place...really gets the grime off) andsomeone was headed to that side of town, so we hopped a ride to a GREAT chineserestaurant called Peking Gourmet Chinese Restaurant. Best of all, it was 12:30,and we made it for the $5.95 AYCE lunch buffet! We did some damage, despite thefact we haven't totally kicked into hiker appetites yet. It was really goodchinese food and they had soft serve ice cream too! I had 2 cones, and Nicolehad 3! LOLThen something happened I thought was impossible. My fortune cookie was EMPTY!LOL No fortune!! LOL I about died laughing. If anyone out there knows whatthis "symbolizes" let me know. (But if it's bad, make something good up...likeI am destined to be a millionaire or something! LOL)Since we were right by the grocery store, we decided to resupply while we werethere. I not only got supplies for the 4 days to N.O.C., but I also bought 4days worth of supplies to mail to myself to Fontana Dam, where resupply isreally bad. It cost me a whopping $50.00 for everything. I'm getting betterat buying what I need. One word of advice though, when in a grocery store inthe south, it is not wise to use the phrase, "That's cool, I'm easy." LOL Isaid that to Nicole, just about the time these 2 men were walking by and gotquite a stare! Made me laugh.We called the Budget Inn and in 15 minutes, they had a someone there to pick usback up and take us back. Now I had to contend with getting my box ready tomail and buying more alcohol for my stove and 1 new tent stake for my tarp. Ibent the crap out of one in these rocky mountains. I found someone else'sempty box in the office and put my food in it. Low and behold, there were 2huge cans of denatured alcohol by the office door for us to use for free (canyou tell this place is like heaven for hikers) so I topped of mine and Nicole'sfuel. Then all I really needed was 1 stake, and I didn't really want to spend 2hours riding around in a shuttle for 1 small item, so I decided to ask a fellowhiker who needed to run errands if they'd mind picking one up for me at theoutfitters if I gave them the $.So I go next door and knock, and who is it but Dirty Ernie! He said he wasgoing to the outfitters and when I asked him if he'd pick a stake up for me hegoes, "Oh, I think I have a spare stake you can just have!" Man, hikers areawesome people, and I'm really getting antsy for my chance to pay all of thisgenerosity forward. So he gives me a stake and then sees my beat up box thatI'm using to mail my food in and grabs some tape and tapes it up for me too! What a NICE guy!Now all I needed was to get to the P.O. Ron has a small school bus that heshuttles hikers around on and it leaves at 4:00 p.m. First stop, P.O., so Ifigured I'd get off and just walk back the 1/4 mile (or so) to the motel. Justbefore we left, the hikers at the Sapphire Inn showed up and who is there? Sailor!!! He had this grin on his face and said, "Did you or Nicole losethis?" He had picked up AND washed Nicole's snot rag! What a guy! Meanwhile,Nicole was at the laundry doing our laundry...I couldn't wait to give it back toher.So the bus departs and we all go to the P.O. I'm in line talking to this nicelocal gentleman and before I leave, he said if I needed a ride back to thehotel, he'd be happy to give me a ride. I knew I had it covered, but again,people are super nice out here.I get back on the bus and asked Ron which direction he was going and he saidhe'd swing me back by the hotel. I got off and went into the laundry matw/Nicole. In the meantime, I met Bert, who said his wife, Judy has beenreading my journal (and many other's too! LOL). She's a psychologist and shesaid I was very normal! LOL (SEE EVERYONE...I TOLD YOU SO!!) Hi Judy! Bert hurt his leg a bit, but I'm sure he'll be ok. So now it's back in theroom, trying to clean gear, get organized and repack. I think we're orderingpizza for dinner and our friends Kay and Gadget are in town. They are still aday behind us, but Kay hurt her foot, so they are resting.Another incredible day, and it's back on the trail tomorrow. Thanks to everyonesigning my guestbook again. It's really exciting to read the comments when Iget to town. And thank you to Rachael and my mom for their support. Withoutyou two, this wouldn't be possible! And BTW, my mom is doing pretty good. Offfor pizza.~Certain