Date: 2005-04-10
From: wallace Gap

To: Cold Spring Shelter
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: clear sky

I'm walking. Got up at 6:00 and was walking by 7:30. The other 3 guys are still sleeping. When we got to the shelter last night, someone had left a box of cookies, a bag of apples, oatmeal sandwiches and 3 packs of 'backpacker's apple cobbler'. This morning I had the cobbler, it was excellent, a nice switch from the grits and cold cereal. In fact, this morning I took the grits and threw them away when I got back down to Wallace Gap this morning. I've got too much food right now. I don't want to throw out the dinners, I spent too much time putting them together. Maybe I'll bump them up ahead somewhere. I grabbed some cookies and apples for the Trail. When I got down to the garbage can this morning, I stopped for a few minutes, I took off my backpack, threw out my garbage, and pulled another cigar out of my pack.   I had a really scary moment when I went to start up again, I had a really sharp pain in my right knee. I couldn't put my full weight on it. It scared the hell out of me. I managed to walk it off, its OK now.   I don't know what that was all about. I've been amazingly lucky so far. I'm sore of course, every part of my body is. No serious pains, nothing hurt yet, as I said last nigh,t I felt awesome. As soon as you cross Wallace Gap over to the other side you start going uphill really fast. Lots of rocks and roots and steep sections in the Trail. There was a sign saying 'Hikers Beware' because of damage from the hurricanes, and sure enough, sections of the Trail of drops right off the trail a couple of hundred feet to the right, some of the trees had pulled away and there were big gaping holes in the Trail that you had to try to get into and out of in order to continue on there was no other way, and some big trees that went down across the Trail that you had to scoot under.I'm going to be heading into Winding Stair Gap in a few minutes. They have an 'all you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner' which I am skipping. I have to make my date on Thursday to be in NOC to meet Eddie. I guess that's it for the morning.I must be losing weight rapidly because every day I have to cinch my waist belt more and more. I've already cinched it about 4 inches. I can't imagine as much as I'm eating I'm still losing all this weight. I'm constantly munching on the Trail, my mouth is always full.It was a chilly start this morning, 43 degrees. It's about 50 now, I'm down to my shirt sleeves. The climb out of Wallace Gap got me all hot and sweaty.It's a beautiful day again. I'm on the shady side of the mountain still. It should be another great day for hiking I was worried that it would start raining again but it didn't.9:53All this trail magic is slowing me down but I'm not going to complain about it. I got down to Winding Stair Gap and there's a man and his wife setting up a big table with brownies, Rice Krispie treats, ham sandwiches, bologna, cheese, sodas of all kinds, oranges and apples. I sat down and talked to them while I ate some stuff.Back on the Trail again. Might as well enjoy it while I canThe trail angels name were Tracker and Shuttle, Thanks Tracker and Shuttle!!That was the perfect place for trail magic, let me tell you. Right at the bottom of a big climb. Seems like it's been dropping that way. It was like starting up a big fire. It's 11:10 and I just rocketed up this hill here. 3.3 miles and 1000 feet in elevation change in an hour and 20 minutes. That felt good!!12:15I'm at Waya Gap, eating a nice, big, fat ham, cheese and bologna sandwich that I made over at Tracker's trail magic. I'm just about 50 feet from the road. I figured I would eat again before the next big climb. I'm headed out to Waya Bald. It's a pretty steep climb from here, one of the steeper ones, 1,200 feet. I'll keep on going. Last night going into the shelter was the first time since I crossed the North Carolina border that we went down below 4,000 feet. I believe the shelter was at about 3,700 and then after Winding Stair Gap right back up to above 5,000 and it looks like it's staying at about 4,000 for the rest of the day.3:15I'm half a mile north of Wayah Bald. That's the second climb above a mile today. I stopped up at the top of Wayah Bald, they have a parking area there, and a lookout point. I took some pictures. I hung out with some of the hikers that were staying up there. They took some pictures of me. I stopped at this one spring just north of the summit to go ahead and fill up on water because I don't know what's ahead. I left a note for Albert. I was supposed to find a camping spot right after I got the water. It's still early in the day and the next shelter is only 5 1/2 miles away.Alot of new people today. I think mainly because I did big miles yesterday and I jumped from one group to another. Some of the hikers' names are Fatty, SkiBum, That Man and Hot N Sweaty.I'm in my tent right now, on a summit above Cold Springs Shelter, 5,100 feet on my altimeter. Just a sliver of the moon is out and the stars are bright. I can see the Milky Way and the lights of the city that I think are Franklin, N.C. I didn't want to stay in the shelter so I spent 15 minutes going up and down the shelter looking for flat spots. I wanted to keep on going until I found a little trail and found a bunch of people up top with some pretty flat areas right on the ridge. 10 feet from where my tent is, the mountain just drops away for what seems like thousands of feet. There's a big valley below with city lights off in the distance. I got up here about 5:30 and Sam I Am, Oragami, That Man, Fatty, and another kid whose Trail name was Spicy Thighs, I hadn't met him either. They were all sitting by the fire yapping away. I found a flat spot with a great view and I pitched my tent and went down to where the crowd was and cooked myself lasagna and had some tea.Albert found the note I left him 5 miles back and he came in at about 7:30. Tomorrow morning I'm going to try to get rolling at about 7:30. It's only about 11 miles to NOC. Albert and I decided that we are going to split the cost of a room there, I can't wait to get there and have clean laundry and a shower and a hamburger. It's April 10th and I have only had 2 showers since 3/29 and I can hardly stand to be in the tent with myself.I'm thinking of spending the night there and taking my time getting out the next morning and getting out to Fontana Dam. It's only 27 miles from NOC to Fontana Dam, but it's a rough 27 miles. It's going to be a 4,000 foot ascent ot of NOC into 6,000 foot territory. It's a rough section in the Trail. I'm meeting Eddie on Thursday. I'll take my time going across there. At this point, my right knee is starting to speak to me and I notice my right ankle is very sore as well. So, into town. I'm going to eat well, rest and walk slowly into the Smokies.Good Night