Date: 2015-04-21
From: Carter Gap Shelter, NC

To: Just short of Winding Stair Gap NC
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 9 - Bedded down just short of Winding Stair Gap, where US 64 crosses the Trail. (Note the priority! In my mind, the road crosses the Trail; it isn't that the Trail crosses the road.)It was a beautiful, sunny day. The highlight would be getting to the top of Albert Mountain, a long hard scramble, because that was our 100 mile mark. I took a Flat George photo up there. There was great phone connectivity, too, so I sent some photos to the blog and called Ann for a morning chat (it was about 11:00; I'd left the shelter area at 8:00). In the morning I saw 3 emails from Ernie N., the usual URL of something interesting with no comment or text. So wrote him back a short note and told him of the hike. At one time he'd have wanted to do this -- or maybe he did.Last night and this morning were pretty cold. I slept in t-shirt, fleece sweater and down jacket with my heavy weight Buff cap on, fully zipped into my 20 degree sleeping bag, and could still feel the cold through the hammock bottom. I wasn't using the Z-Rest pad, as I think it's part of the cause of the sliding around. Nights like that make the wisdom of an underquilt pretty clear, but the bulk and hassle of carrying and not needing it most nights just doesn't compute for me.I hiked off dressed like that in the morning, plus gloves. It had to have been in the 40s. Wind was blowing all night, too, but I was glad the wind was blowing the rain clouds away without my having to be out walking in it.Haven't seen the honeymooners Sam and Sarah all day, which surprised me. I did stop at two shelters to eat, though, so they could have passed me. Maybe they were trying to get to US 64 for a hitch/shuttle into town (that would be Franklin, I take it, from the shelter registers). Or they're still behind me. I saw the Toes guy once when he passed me. And the jet fuel guy - from Top of Georgia and last night's shelter - a couple times. Both are ahead of me and possibly in town. Another 60-something guy zipped past me twice (I passed him once in between when he was taking a water break). He was sporting one of the registration tags so I suppose he's a thru-hiker, though I don't remember him before.Saw some more little patches of squaw root today. It sure looks edible, but maybe only to bears. Saw one chipmunk. Lots of mosses and lichens and some ferns. (Oh, that I could know their names.)There was one bit coming out of the first shelter - a real new one, large and neatly built - where the Trail ran down a stream for several yards. I checked and re-checked. Then plodded ahead, eventually finding a blaze and dry land. Maybe it isn't an actual stream when it hasn't been raining.Ann asked me if the crowd is thinning out, and it sure seems to be. Two nights of 7 people at the shelter ... well, actually, two nights ago there were 7 in plus 4 out (in the rain and thunder). Last night I think it was 7 altogether, with most of us in hammocks and tents. Tonight, of course, I'm on my own, but there weren't any people at either of the shelters I stopped at during the day, and nobody's gone by on the Trail while I've been here, that I heard. Haven't seen the three kids from a couple days ago either (I think they may have been the late arrival tenters two nights ago).Tomorrow I may do a 15 mile day to get a shelter, and the next day then I think it's 13 to the NOC and a food box. There's a shelter like about a mile or less short of NOC. Not sure what's available beyond it. Some depends on when I get there.I'm sitting on my pad on the ground. It's cooling down. I'm going to get in the hammock and try to read a while. I'll check signal again, but I'm in a little stream valley and saw no bars of phone service and no 3G/4G data service when I tried to send Ann a text about where I am. It'll go off in the morning at some point. I'll check again by the road and then after I climb the first mountain of the day. Sun's got a while to go yet, but it's cooling down. Had better take the down jacket to bed with me.(averaging 12.12 miles per day)