Date: 2004-05-25
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: 1 mile north of "lwop's" shoddy step,tn.
Miles today: 21.4

21.4 miles today1 mile north of "lwop's" shoddy step,tn.stealth tenting on nice soft leaves7:40am i thought i would sleep in this morning, but no such luck. i woke up at about 5:30 and was hoping to watch the sun rise, but it's partly cloudy and i didn't get to watch the sun come up. it rained litely last night a few times so my tent is wet. i made coffee and ate apple cinnamon oatmeal with chocolate milk and it tasted surprizingly good. i also decided to eat an orange i've been carrying with me. time to see what hump mountain is going to do to me this year. well, the curse of hump mountain continues. it was comparatively mild to the other years i've been over it, but right when i started climbing it, it started raining. i could see the surrounding mountains from below, but as i climbed, i found myself in a cloud that was blowing by at about 20mph and gusting up to about 35 mph. it stopped raining on the way up, but started again just before i summited. by the time i got down to doll flats it was sunny again. i hiked on down to apple house shelter and signed the register and then hiked out to 19e. i had decided to go ahead and try hitching a ride to the restaurant 1 1/2 miles away. i tried for 25 minutes and nobody even slowed down. "swedish" and "shanon" came out from the trail and we all walked up to the resaurant. they had to go to town anyway because they had a mail drop at the po there. 12:50pm i'm sitting here at the country house restaurant and my bely is full. i had a 1/2 lb black angus burger, fries and a salad and i ordered a philly cheesesteak to go. 4:05pm i'm siting here looking up at what i think is the tallest waterfall on the a.t. it is truly impressive. i got back on tha a.t. at 2pm after having to walk 1 1/2 miles into elk park,nc and walking 1 1/2 miles back out. people just don't seem to want to pick up backpackers. it has turned into a warm afternoon. i missed the spring that was listed in my book, but i saw some water down the side of the hill and went down there to find a nice little spring. the cold water tastes and feels good. i met the "garland 5". they were slackpacking south. they are a family of 5. i didn't get the kids names, but the mother and fathers were "clothesline" and "photo". i'll probably see them again tomorrowat kincora hostel. well, i'm going to get wet and start hiking again.5:40pm sitting here by mountaineer falls eating dinner. i just had my philly cheese steak that i packed out of elk park,nc and my coke is in the falls getting cold.lots of water through this section, but not any springs for a while and since i don't use a filter or treat my water, i'm more particular where i get my drinking water from. i guess i'll pack some water out of here for my coffee in the morning.8:05pm i just set up my tent and hung my food bag and i'm home for the night. just about a mile south of here, i walked over the new relo that i helped build right after trail days on Bob People's hard core trail crew. there were about 80 of us that volunteered for two days of trail work. It was pretty neat walking over trail that you helped build. The 15' or so of trail that "pulaskishoe" and i built wAS VERY NICE TO WALK ON, BUT I ALMOST BROKE MY NECK ON THAT SHODDY STEP THAT "LWOP" PUT IN. I WAS WALKING ALONG THE TRAIL AND THERE WAS A 4' RATTLESNAKE IN THE TRAIL HEADING NORTH. WHEN HE HEARD ME COME UP BEHIND HIM HE GAVE ME A LOOK LIKE; "GO AHEAD AND TRY TO PASS ME". I WATCHED HIM WHILE HE WAS WATCHING ME AND THEN HE MOVED ON OFF TO THE SIDE OF THE TRAIL AND LET ME BY. HE EVEN RATTLED AT ME SOME AT FIRST. i've left nc now and am in tn. the trail goes right down thestate lines of nc and tn for along way, but when i hiked past 19e today, it became just tn. ANOTHER GREAT DAY ON THE A.T.