Date: 2004-03-08
From: Standing Indian Shelter

To: Rainbow Springs/Franklin
Miles today: 20.4

Day 9        We left in mixed clouds and we were both overdressed so we stopped and peeledafter the first couple of hills. The terrain became mostly side hill trails and much easier.The snow caught us at lunchtime at Carter Gap Shelter so we got Fireball to take ourpicture in it. The snow didn¢t last long fortunately; because we were headed for AlbertMtn. Famous for its rock scramble. Well Albert Mtn certainly lived up to its reputation.It was so steep and the rocks were so large that we had to throw our poles up the rise and pull up on rhododendron to scale it. I tried to call Evelyn from the firetower on top; but there was no cell service. This has been the case much of the time. She has sounded busy and good when we have spoken so I hope she is still handling this well. I have to admit that it is really growing on me. There is a lot of camaraderie and every day is a new challenge.        We tried to stop at the Mt. Albert Shelter; but it was full and Bo said that if wedidn¢t do anything stupid that we weren¢t really thru-hikers so we left to add 7 more miles to our day and slip into Rainbow Springs Hostel. Bo lit his afterburners and we started flying; but before we were gone an hour; we were in a winter wonderland. Bothof us were covered in snow; but the footing was still pretty good. We hit Old US 64 justas 3 guys emerged from a car with hot pizzas and gave us each a slice. OH MY GOSH!The last 1.6 to Rainbow Springs wasn¢t bad and we soon had pizzas of our own andsettled into the Yurt. A cylindrical shelter of Mongol origin. Haiku was there as well as Captain Hook, Moonpie, GG, and Wildcat (from Maryville, Tn) Moonpietakes kids on expeditions all over the US and Alaska. They¢ll be gone a month and hike, raft, kayak, rock climb, ice climb, horseback ride and learn a lot about getting along with one another. What a job! Any smoking of anything and they go home.Three episodes of detrimental behavior and they are gone.Tomorrow we¢ll meet the girls in Franklin for a nero and a zero. I woke up at 5 ambecause I heard two single Hoots that might have been a Long Eared Owl; but I couldn¢tfind him. As we prepared to leave; I couldn¢t help but notice the woman who ran the store was pale as a ghost. I finally asked if she was anemic and apparently she hasn¢t seen an MD in 12 years and was in fact feeling tired all the time. She was very gratefulfor the advice and I hope she turns out to have a benign cause. Bo and I hitched downinto Franklin and did our laundry and ate at Fat Buddies BBQ for lunch. That first townmeal is always sooooo gooooood. We met Dragonslayer there. She is a slender girl whojust graduated from UGa and is going to UVa for a masters in sports psychology. We would learn later how appropriate her trail name was.        We had a nice visit with the girls in Franklin. We took them back to Fat Buddiesfor a lunch and also had nice dinners at The Chef and His Wife, and at the Frog and the Owl. The best dinner was the Rocquefort Duck at the F+O; but the best entertainment was our neighbor at The Chef. She wore a straw cowboy hat, purple WWJD scarf and had a crutch under one arm and a huge heavy briefcase in the other hand to ¢balance herbody because of all of her broken vertebrae¢. She had me cut up one of her credit cards and talked about having sent her husband to jail. WHEW. Glad when she left.Bo skipped the second dinner to lie on his heating pad to try to quell his backache so Allyn went with us and we had lots of fun. Evelyn still seems to be doing well. I¢ll missher.