Date: 2012-05-07
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: broken clouds

Today started off sort of slow.  Such is life in a shelter.  Hotshot, sleeping on a platform right above me, got up first and made a ton of racket in the process.  He had just talked about spending a night with the party kids the night before and making as much noise as possible for them when he got up early.  Sort of a payback I suppose for their drunken revelry.  I wonder if this was his quiet mode or if he was passive aggressively thanking us for our later-than-polite discussion about great movies from the 80's and 90's.  My contributions were ET, The Goonies, The Princess Bride, and Airheads.  I will ask him if I ever catch him.  He is on a mission to rejoin Johnny Walker who is likely another day ahead.  I was on the trail  by 8:30am and hiked with Gigline for a few minutes until he had to take off a layer.  He is hopping on for a section up to Damascus and will likely work out the quirks soon.  I hiked up to the top of Little Rock Knob for some clear early morning views stretching way into the distance.  Josh, who I named OJ last night (he doesn't like this), and Gummy Bear eventually joined me for the views with Poppa Bear right behind.  We hiked on as a pack and shared some entertaining stories as the miles of beautiful terrain passed us by.  We also frightened a number of Dark-eyed Junkos and flushed them from their nests.  Poppa noticed that they all had eggs in their nests and chirped loudly at us until we left the general area.  We got to Hughes Gap and stopped for a snack.  Poppa Bear hiked on and we caught up with him at the top of Roan High Knob.  He was eating lunch and taught me a trick for smashing bread such that it can later be unsmashed and turned into sandwiches.  Mmmm, sandwiches.  I can't wait for a resupply town.  I am not a fan of stopping to eat but if it means I can eat things other than pre-packaged ingredients pressed into rectangular shapes, I might just make an exception.  Josh and I cruised down from Roan and headed for the next shelter, an old barn built early last century that was converted to an AT shelter in 1983.  On our way, we stopped off at a thicket of fir trees on a big grassy bald and essentially stepped into another world.  There was a fire pit in the center and probably the kind of thing Robin Hood would have slept in after stealing from the rich.  We walked across the bald and said hello to a large group mostly from North Carolina.  They gave me a quarter of a sandwich and lettuce.  It was delicious.  I figured Josh received the other vegan quarter right before I arrived.  Gummy and Poppa Bear caught up and blew our cover of being nice, respectable hikers.  He shouted across the bald, "Don't believe a word they'ra sayin'..". It was fun chatting and soon Tail Dragger and Gigline arrived.  We took a few group photos and then headed for the barn.  On our way, I met Unicoi Zoom along the trail.  Her register posts have been entertaining and it was fun to finally meet her.  We talked about knitting, traveling, Handspring, birding and family.  We hike at different paces but it will be good to see her again at Trail Days.  I arrived at the barn after Poppa, Gummy, and Josh and made myself at home lounging in the hammock overlooking this incredible valley.  I set up in the back under the main barn between rafters diagonally over one of the sleeping platforms with an open view to the east.  This is surely the best view I have had from a shelter yet.  A bunch of new folks showed up, some friendly, some not, but in the mix was Unicoi, and I was able to learn much more about her backstory.  Everybody comes from somewhere and you can tell that some stories are going to be pretty interesting.  Dinner was cooked out back, kraft mac and cheese, which I spiced up with fresh cracked pepper, dried green onion, and garlic.  I played music with Josh again by the fire.  We made up riffs, listened, and followed each other's lead.  Nobody really wanted to socialize tonight and we packed up early.  Everybody else went upstairs in the enclosed loft.  Lounging in the hammock again, journal fully written by 10pm, the gusting wind rocks me to sleep underneath the creaking old barn.  As I stare off into the distance thinking about where I am, a long, bright shooting star illuminates the cloudy night, letting me know where I am going.  I gasp, and know that I am the only one in this shelter who saw it.