Date: 2004-05-22
From: NOC, NC

To: Fontana Dam, NC
Miles today: 45.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I emailed the entry to Ben to post for me. I have over 180 emails since i left, and i pay by the minte for internet access, so i unfortunately cant read or reply to all of them. If you want to mail something to me, check the list of maildrops i posted on the 12th. The best bet is to mail a week ahead. priority mail is pretty reliable at 3 days or less. I am forwarding mail as i go, so if i miss something, i should get it at the next drop. Thanks! -joeemail:Day 10First, let me summarize mileages by day   1. 11, 8 miles on approach trail, 3 on the AT to the shelter. stayed in stover creek shelter   2. 24 miles to woods hole shelter   3. 16 miles. 4 to neel's gap, where i met with peter and colin, 12 more to low gap shelter   4. 10 miles to unicoi gap, hitchiked into helen, GA with peter and colin. Greg kept on the trail   5. 20 miles to plum orchard shelter   6. 20 miles to carter gap shelter   7. 20 miles to siler bald shelter. met another through hiker, jim aka whitetail   8. 24 miles to natahala outdoor center   9. 18 miles to brown fork shelter. The first 5 miles of the day included a 3300 ft vertical climb. Realize that 100 stories x 12 feet per story is only 1200 feet. Imagine climbing the stairs up 3 skyscrapers in a row, then hiking another 13 miles after that 10. 12 miles to Fontana Dam, a vacation resort with a hotel and an all you can eat buffet. The post office closed at noon, and i started at 7 thinking i only had 6 miles to hike. i ended up jogging most of it, galloping down hills. i ended up about at the road by 11:10 and hitchiked with some other through hikers to the post office. Got there at 11:40Hiking with Pete and Colin is fun. They both rowed last season so they are both in great shape. I didn't but I manage to keep up because of my light pack. If I hike right with them, I find myself pushing too hard and getting exhausted before the end of the day. Instead, I just leave 15 minutes before they do in the morning so that they catch up by lunch time. We typically take a nap/lunch from 1 to 3 and miss the hottest hours of hiking. I leave 10 minutes before them, and they usually catch up bythe time I get to the shelter for the night.The weather is steadily getting drier. The problem with that is that it means you sweat more, it is harder to find water, and there are alot more bugs. the advantage is that you can hang stuff up to dry, and it is actually drier after a couple hours. The other neat thing about good weather are the views. From the top of Albert mountain on our first clear day, it was amazing. You could see all of the mountaintops, but all of the valleys were filled with clouds. It was like looking out of an airplane, except you were standing on the ground. Pictures, maybe a panorama, will be up in a week or so.We have yet to see any bears. Jim, a through hiker we met at Siler Bald, saw one in a tree. It saw him, and started climbing down the tree really fast. It got to the ground about 20 feet from him, then ran away from him as fast as it could. We have seen several snakes, especially timber rattlers. Greg and I saw one on our third day, then i saw one yesterday. Pete and Colin were about an hour behind me and saw 3- one of them was over 5 feet long and peter said it was the largest he's ever seen. I tend to watch the trail more carefully now. The neatest thing I have seen was an owl. I was hiking around a switchback, and looked up to see a large (>1 foot tall) owl perched on a branch less than 15 feet away. I had been hiking alone for most of the day, so i started talking to it. i asked it if i could take it's picture and it hooted. I took out my camera and pointed it at the owl, then he turned his head. I said out loud that I would turn the flash off, he hooted again, then looked straight at the camera. I took a picture, said thanks. The owl hooted and then flew away.Colin has to go to his sister's graduation next weekend, so Peter is stopping in gatlinberg, TN for 3 days while colin flies up and back. I'm not going to wait around for them, so i will stick with them for 3 or 4 more days then move on. It's not as bad as I thought, we have been catching up to several other through hikers. Staying in Fontana Dam tonight (and going to the all-you-can-eat buffet, did i mention that?) are me, Pete, Colin, Greg (now roadrunner) and Dan (at-addict) who we just caught up with. Biton the briton, Thor and Baby Bear, Miss Maine and the New Orleans kid, and Andrew (don't recall his trail name), and Jim (white blaze) should all be here by dinner. Some are staying all day tomorrow, a few of us are continuing. This means that we are starting to catch up with some of the other through hikers - most people start GA->ME between march 15 and apr 15. The people we are with now mostly started the last week of April and the first week of May.My gear has changed slightly since i started. I have given up on my pump and switched to aquamira (chlorine dioxide). that took at least 4 ounces off my pack. I replaced my pack-towel with a heavy duty paper towl thingie witch dries out better when it's wet. I bought a stuff sack to hold my food instead of a large zip lock bag. neither of those two changed my weight. I added a pair of crocs, a really light type of sandals. They are single-piece closed-cell foam sandals with closed toes, so they are really soft and really good in the woods. Plus, they weigh barely a couple ounces. I have set up my tarp only twice, and only needed 3 stakes, so I sent the other 3 ahead. that saved .75 ounces. My pack has been lighter than everyone I have seen, I have been mistaken for a dayhiker/weekender too many times to count.Tomorrow, we start into the Smokey mountains, which are known to have lots of bears. If I am lucky, I will get to see one or more. if I'm not lucky, I'll probably see a few up close. My next maildrop will be in hot springs, NC 28743 on the 28th (Friday), then in Damascus, VA 24236 on the 4th (the following thursday) if I am lucky I will be able to squeeze out an extraday so that i can take my time in the Whites.Thats it for now, I will post more in about a week.