Date: 2010-09-19
From: NOC

To: Sassafras Gap Shelter
Miles today: 6.9
Weather: clear sky

Karen and I spent the weekend at the NOC in one of their "motel" rooms. It was a room in a shared cabin. Our bathroom was across a public hallway from our room. It worked out okay. The place was clean, but, we didn't meet any of our fellow roomates. Someone did serenade us outside of our window around 10 PM, thank goodness he had a good voice. Sunday morning I started the AT headed north and Karen returned to Kentucky. The climb out of the NOC is up the only 5000 foot peak in the Cheoah Mountains. Joy with a loaded pack. The day was warm and water was a concern. I met two guys headed southbound and asked them about the springs up the trail. The info was not good, no water until the shelter which was almost 7 miles north. Okay, hot day, but had to conserve the water I was carrying. The AT ascends to Wright Gap through a shaded area of mountain laurel and brown ferns. A nice resting place is an overlook with a view of the Nantahala Gorge. The Cherokee named this area the Nantahala which means "the land of the noonday sun". The valleys of this mountain range only get the sun at noon because of the narrowness of the mountain valleys. The trail gods are kind at this point and I walk along a ridge crest toward Grassy Gap. There is a memorial plaque affixed to a slab of marble to the right of the trail. It honors Forest Ranger Wade Sutton who died near this location fighting a forest fire. I was wondering about the use of the marble until I remembered this area has marble mines about a mile from the NOC. Ranger Sutton must have been well liked for someone to carry that heavy marble up this steep trail. At Grassy Gap I meet a fellow by the name of Lee. He isn't sure which way he is hiking as he has been lost for two days. He started at a campground and just headed into the mountains in a "northern direction by my compass". He made his own trail believing he would cross the AT sooner or later. Well, he made it and stopped at the campsite at Grassy Gap. Interesting young man. We leapfrogged each other up the trail. We both stopped at the Jump UP to admire the views and rest. I found out a little more about Lee as we talked. He is currently unemployed and decided he could be unemployed on the trail as easy as unemployed at home in Charlotte, NC. He is a carpenter by trade so we talked about decks and cabinets and making furniture. He turned out to be a nice guy instead of a squirrel. I'm glad most of the trail is in the shade as temps are ranging around 85 degrees. There are some really tall red oaks along the trail, I don't know how the loggers missed them when they came through this area. The trail is a little overgrown with flowering plants full of bumblee bees. Unfortunately one of them decides to go on a Kamakase mission and stings me on the ankle. I stop and get the stinger out, I am afraid to take a benedryl. I don't want to dehydrate. Ankle is swelling, ok dokey, three miles to go, onward! I didn't run into anyone else until I stopped at the shelter. Thankfully there was water running out of a pipe to the right of the shelter. A friendly salamander was living in the pipe and would poke his head out as you filtered water. Water duties completed, dinner cooked, time for bed, benadryl taken, good night all.