Date: 2010-04-10
From: Hogback Ridge Shelter

To: No Business Shelter
Miles today: 20.7
Weather: clear sky

Last night was quite uncomfortable. In an effort to set myself up far from the shelter I sacrificed a good tent spot for one that just wasn't level enough and I ended up sliding sideways into the door of my tent all night. I also heard an owl all through the night and at one time what sounded like a big group of turkeys. Despite, I dragged myself out of bed and was able to pack up and get going by 8:30 still intending to get as far as I could before I lost daylight.I was real hungry this morning, it might have been a mental thing since I knew I was running low on food, but since I was doing a higher mileage day today I knew I did need to eat a little more.I had a few good climbs early in the morning, especially coming out of Sam's Gap and I wasn't really feeling the hike today which was a bummer. I tried to drink as much as possible thinking that might help but I always felt best about 15 minutes after a good snack so I ate my last snickers bar and continued to trudge my way up the mountain.The climb up to Big Bald was quite steep, but it was a very short climb so I was able to manage it without issue and since Kelly was so chirpy today I let her lead the way. About every 100 feet or so she would look back and make sure she could still see me and if she lost sight of me she would wait until I came in sight. I did call her back a few times to hike behind me such as when we came across an unusually large crowd of people.I ate lunch at the top of Big Bald where the views were spectacular! 360 degree views of all the surrounding mountain and a man and two boys also arrived up there and decided to eat lunch so we talked for a little bit about our hikes and what was yet to come. I've been told many times the last few days that some of the prettiest hiking on the AT is coming up soon.After lunch I began the decent down Bald Mountain and even for someone without knee problems I kept hoping I would get some uphill! For miles it felt like all I did was descend and the downhills really hurt your feet after a while and concern me because of my ankle rolling problem (which is doing a lot better taking it slower).Around four I reached a road and was very surprised to come across the Traveling Circus! I had thought they were a day ahead like everyone else but apparently had taken a low mileage day the day before and were now acessing the food situation as was I. I determined I had two dinners for one night (and no fuel to cook either of them) so I handed them a packet of mashed potatos that had been in my pack since Springer and moved on.The rest of the hike went pretty quick. I ended up hiking next to a creek for a while which cooled things off a bit (the day had been fairly warm), and gave me some new scenery to look at. I admit I was quite excited to reach No Business shelter and complete my first twenty day feeling great (as did the dog) and couldn't wait to hit town tomorrow morning but I still had to figure out how I was going to cook my dinner. While setting up camp I had seen a fire just up from the campsite a bit so I brought my food over and asked if I might be able to cook over there fire. They seemed more than happy to help me out and introduced themselves as Caveman, Smokes, and there was another guy with them who I forgot his name. They were just up to get away from society for the night and shared stories of the trail as we made our dinner. My spaghetti didn't cook very well and ended up being a bit glob of seasoned goo, but it was warm and it was good, so I ate it. Anyways, tomorrow is town day and an AYCE pizza buffet Molasses had told me about a few days earlier that I had not been able to get out of my head!