Date: 2012-04-17
From: River Road - Uncle Johnnie Hostel

To: Campsite at Mile Marker 363.4 - Tented
Miles today: 21.9

Day 23 - Tuesday, April 17thHiking Days 17 / Nero Days 5 /  Zero Days 1Start Location: River Road - Johnnies HostelMile Marker: 341.5Ending Location: Campsite - TentedMile Marker: 363.4Time: 9h 42minMiles: 21,9FWeather: pleasant, even warm in the morning, warmed up quickly.  Actually turning to hot fast 50-52 morning, sunny, then turning cloudy early afternoon.  Night is expected to be cool with heavy rain. Light rain started around 3:00Night was rather warm.  Too warm for the sleeping bag but since the pad did not have a sheet on it I tried to lie on top.  Unfortunately when your skin hit the plastic pad it would stick to it. After the talking stopped last night I finally was able to fall asleep.  Only four of us in the hostel.  Three in our section and one in the other room.  No snoring so all was good.  Up at 6:00 with my alarm.  Up, bathroom, grabbed my stuff and headed to the the tables.  The whole time it was dark and my headlamp was required.  It is odd to be not only the first one up but the only one up.  Finished packing, ate my  600 calorie chocolate frosted honeybun.  Then a snickers.  Checked the weather on my phone and headed out.  Not sure what my plan is yet but with a very good chance of rain expected in the afternoon and heavy rain storms all night I know I wanted to use this dry period to get in some miles.  If it rains early I could stop short at a shelter in a out 17 miles. If not bad then my goal is to stay over 20+ days and get to a camp site and set up before the rain starts.  When I hit the first Shelter, I came across Animal, Ricky & Lucy,  and the couple with the two dogs.  It was only 8:45 so it was still early for this group.  I said my hello's and then goodbye's. The entire day was petty much a constant climb. I basically went from 2022 feet at Johnnies to 5180 at Unaka Mountain.  I miss my slack I did the last hike.  I south bounded this section so it was really all down hill.  This year I am finding a big jump in prices.  This slack was no exception. It was a base of $30 plus 5 for each additional person - each way.  With so few people at the place it would be hard to get enough hikers to go in on it and it was not worth $60 to me.  They said they have only done this shuttle twice this year.  You would think they would have figured out why by now.  They also are losing the extra nights stay from hikers like me that would have stayed another night.  Penny wise, pound foolish. So once at the second shelter I figured I would eat my meal there since if it was raining later I would not be able to cook in my tarp.  I had my lasagna and two packets of oatmeal.  A bummer about my large m&m packets are that something must have spilled on them at the store, like detergent, and they tasted horrible.  At least I found this out early and didn't have to carry them far.  The bummer is they were my two major snacks.  Now it was about 2:30.  The skies went from cloudy to sunny back to cloudy.  Then the rumbling of thunder began.  Then a light rain.  Not bad so I decided to go the extra miles.  Leaving a dry shelter in the rain is a lot like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.  As it turned out the rain remained light and intermittent.  Got to the campsite.  Thought about going another 3 miles to the next site but with nearly 22 miles already in and rain expected anytime now, I decided to stay.  The rain is persisting.  I have signal and am able to check the weather.  The heavy rain has been pushed back to about 8 or 9. But has been upgraded to 90% and the severity has also been increased.  It will be a food night to see of the repairs I made worked and everything remains dry this time.  An early start day with and early end time.  But it is nice to have a full stomach, a 20+ mile day, in my tarp during the rain and all by 4:30.