Date: 2005-10-15
From: Erwin, TN

To: 3 miles n of Sam's Gap, Tn.
Miles today: 21.8

21.8 miles todayStealth tenting3 miles n. of Sam's Gap, Tn. I woke up at 6am and went out to the kitchen at Miss Janet's Hostel and put on a pot of coffee. I slept good last night. I went through my bounce box again and put a few cold weather things in my pack. I heard a weather report that said it was going to be in the upper 30s tonight...it's about time. That's more the kind of weather I like to hike in. Miss Janet told me last night that she could take me to Sam's Gap and I could walk back to Erwin, but with the nice temperature predicted for tonight, I decided to just hike out of Erwin and spend the night in the woods. No one was up yet and I was done getting my pack ready, so I drove up to Hardy's and got a few bacon, egg and cheese biscuits for breakfast. When I got back, I pulled my truck into thhe back yard where it will sit for about 17 days until I get done with this hike. No one was up yet, so I sat down and started reading the newspaper. Miss Janet finally got up and I got her to drop me off at the trailhead. I got started walking at 9:45am. I started climbing out of Erwin which is at 1700 feet elevation. Within 2 miles I was at 3500 feet and feeling really good. It only took a couple days to get back to where I really feel strong walking again. There was some orange sodas shortly after I started walking, so I put one in my pack to have with lunch. G Dawg '05 left them there. I met a G Dawg before, but don't remember if it was this year or last year...anyway, thanks!! :-))) When I got up to where I could look back down on the valley below, the whole Nolichucky River Basin was full of fog. I love looking down on fog in valleys below me while I'm in bright sunlight. I stopped at No Business Knob Shelter and sat down for half an hour and ate lunch. I had packed out some hard salami and Cabot's Swiss cheese to put on some wheatberry bread. I had 2 of those and the orange soda and was stuffed. I hiked on and in about 5 miles I came to Spivey Gap. I had stopped just before there and got some water out of a nice stream. From Spivey Gap I had a 900 foot climb to High Rocks, then down to Whistling Gap and a 1300 foot climb up to Little Bald. I spent most of the day climbing and felt like I was floating up these hills. I hiked on to Bald Mountain Shelter and stopped to eat dinner. This time I only had one sandwich. I checked out the register and signed it. It looks like the first of the sobos should be finishing up their hikes down at Springer. I think maybe 2 of them should be done by now. I hiked on and climbed another 400 feet up to the summit of Big Bald which is 5516 feet high. The winds were blowing about 25 mph and it was cool. There were some people just before the summit that had set up nets and were trying to catch raptors. It looked like they've been there for a few weeks. I hiked on down back into some trees and got out of the wind. Today was a beautiful day...mostly sunny and probably only in the low 60s on top of the mountain. I am up to 5 leaves in the leaf catching game that I'm NOT playing this year. I hiked by Low Gap where I had thought about staying tonight, but ended up walking on by it. I found a nice spot about a mile later and set up my tent. I'm laying in my tent writing this and the bright moon is lighting the forest and my tent. It's a very beautiful evening to be in the woods. For anyone who may have missed my entry of 2 days ago, I want to say one more time that Jan Liteshoe would really appreciate anyone who might wander over to her journal at; www.trailjournals.com/liteshoe and give her a few extra clicks to help move the counter. We are having a friendly competition on who gets the most hits on their website, but I feel sorry for Liteshoe and am trying to help her out a little, even though when she brought out trail magic for me in Grayson Highlands, she put it down on the trail a day after I walked through there. I would have had to go "backwards" to get it. ;-)))