Date: 2008-03-24
From: Flint Mnt. Shelter

To: Johnson City, TN
Miles today: 11.2

I woke up at 2a to the sound of the Red Ranger walking back from a privy break, I thought it was Green Blaze and Roses coming in! At 7:20a, The Red Ranger was leaving, Chris and Lacey was already gone, and we were preparing to leave. After a pop-tart and Carnation's Instant breakfast, I began up and was dissapointed because all of my water was frozen!!! Ya, not only was it flurrying, the temperature was 20*F. I was changing my socks and Toddy Bear and Night Terror saw my blister. The shocked expression on their face let me know that today was gonna be rough. So, I put a nice layer of gauze on the blister and duct taped it. I was right, the blister encompasses all of my heel and is partially under my arch! How funny is it that my first blister is HUGE?Toddy Bear was cold, so he left 45 minutes ahead of us, but told us to meet him at the Hogback Ridge Shelter. I let Night Terror leave before me because I was still limping and didn't want to slow him down. As I was preparing to leave, Leprechaun Kelly--the 17 year old member of the Here Here Gang--chatted with Other Jake and told me that Green Blaze and Roses had spent the night at Jerry's Cabin Shelter with him last night. Well, 1 mile into my hike, Leprechaun Kelly stopped me because my Platypus was leaking and my entire pack, tights, and boats were wet. This, mixed with the snow made my clothes freeze!! It was only an 8.8 mile climb up to the shelter, but man was it tough in the snow. As I reached the Devil Fork Gap Road, a hound began chasing me. I tried to scare him off, but he was not detered and I quickly hopped the barb wire fence...oh well, it gives me an interesting story to tell, no? The only thing I didn't enjoy about this morning's hike was the pain from the blister...I can feel it moving up to under my ankle! Walking in the snow and wind, however, is quite pleasant and makes me feel like Sam Wise the hobbit!!! As I was descending Frost Cold Knob, Other Jake was about to "harpoon" me with a stick, but I caught him...ha ha! He'd told me that he knew he was tracking me because of the footprints I was leaving. Appearantly, my left food is much deeper because of the limp. When we reached the shelter, we smelled a campfire and heard Night Terror return my call...We each make a different animal noise as we approach a shelter and if anybody in our group is there, they reply with their animal sound (It's similar to the Here Here Gang's calling system). He and Leprechaun had re-kindled last night's fire. They told me that Toddy Bear had pushed on and would meet us at Bald Mnt. Shelter tonight. When Other Jake was fetching water, he found some Pepsis that somebody had left in the spring and brought one for everybody--thanks Trail Angel(s)! We were all eating first lunch and drinking our Pepsi when I heard the sweet voices of Green Blaze and Roses. Green Blaze was feeling sick and he and Roses were gonna stop here for tonight. It was 2:30p and I realized that it had taken me 6 hours to cover 8.8 miles and I would not be able to make it to Bald Mnt. So, we all warmed up by the fire until 3:30p and decided to push on to Sam's Gap and try to hitch into Johnson City. Well, we called a cab instead and checked into the Fox Motel. I called my friend Glenn Quarles and he gave us a lift to CiCi's pizza. While there, Night Terror, Green Blaze, Roses, Leprechaun, and Other Jake told me to take some zeros until my foot was better. After some consideration, I decided to heed their advice because I've already sectioned from Sam's Gap-->US 19E. After we dropped the team off at the motel, I went to Briana's apartment, my girlfriend, and waited for her. She had some games in SC and came back late. So, she was surprised when she went into the kitchen and saw me standing there. Tomorrow, I'm gonna pick the gang up and they are gonna slack pack into Erwin to catch up with Toddy Bear.