Date: 2005-04-20
From: Deep Gap (tent) 

To: Ash Gap (tent)
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 35 Where to start? I¢m not going to tell you I woke up anymore. Just assume if I¢m writing then I probably woke up. We left camp a little after 8am. Mt Unaka lay ahead. Love to get that blood flowing early in the morning. We chanted ohh-na-ka ohh-na-ka..as we climbed. Up top there is a large stand of red spruce that tend to remind people of the Maine woods. Oddly with my extensive educational background I only classify trees into 4 groups. You have what we had today red spruce, which along with pine trees, fur, and other assorted spruces fall under Christmas trees/pine trees. It¢s got needles it goes there. You have your birch tree¢s white bark. Shrub and bushes. Then a big group that covers everything else. Now that we all feel just a little dumber I¢ll move on. We stopped by Cherry Gap Shelter for water and a snack. From there we climb a knob and then across a road. Lot¢s of sun today. We do lunch in the middle of nowhere. Soweja, Blue eye, Rocky & Hareball were all there. They¢ve all been picking ramps (wild onions). After lunch and about 2 miles of hiking I follow Soweja in search of ice cream. The book tells you to take an over grown jeep trail .6 of a mile from Greasy Creek Gap. So off we go. We walk down the trail/road as it follows a stream past an old barn. Up ahead there¢s a forest road gate and we can hear a truck. This is my near Deliverance experience. Someone cue the music. The two guys looking as though they came right off the set of the movie Deliverance were as surprised to see us, as we were to see them. Soweja being from southern georgia himself decided to chat with them. He then asked where the store was. They were even both wearing over-alls. They had the same in-bred look and thats being nice. They thought a bit and told us we had a couple miles to go. I¢m thinking it¢s time to run back to the A.T., noworries don't need this. They are slowly backing towards the bed of their truck. I swear the kid with the banjo was going to pop out. You really had to see these guys. Anyway, they said they were out picking lettuce in the woods! The rest of America has gardens, but fine whatever. He reaches into the bed of the truck and pulls out the biggest pick I¢ve ever seen. The kind you could mine gold with or dig holes for bodies. That must be some crazy lettuce. Finally, we realize they don¢t have a clue where we want to go. We mention the guys name and they say he lives just a couple of doors down. They were headed up the trail so I kept going with Soweja. After a house to the left with two angry dogs we find our hostel. Packrat runs it with his wife for $12 you can bunk or camp shower and do laundry. They have a computer and most important ice cream. So we stayed for a while and ate. So much ice cream so little time. They are very nice and I highly recommend the place. Skylark, Nu-b and Dr. Chickadee were there. Dr. Chickadee gave us a bag of cookies we would just like to thank her. We also would have probably stayed, but at 5pm thought we should move back up the trail and find Blue eye. So an hour later we are at Clyde Smith Shelter cooking dinner. Hareball, Rocky, Doc & Grey Beard were there. I believe Hareball was eating twizzlers and caviar hmm¢¦Yuk! I did have a twizzlers though. At 7pm Soweja and I head up Little Rock Knob and watch the sunset. We then hike under the moonlight towards Ash Gap looking for Blue-eye. This involves climbing 1500ft of Roan Mtn. No headlamps as the moon was enough. Blue eye is camped at Ash Gap and I dare say was a little surprised to see us. Today we learned that Chaos was supposed to let Brambles dog out of the van and take care of it for a day. Chaos for whatever reason left his boots in the van. Bramble¢s dog of course ate them. Oh da humor.