Date: 2013-04-09
From: Sassafrass Gap

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Instant spring. We got up today to a beautiful cloudless day, slightly warm with a moderate breeze. It was too warm for a jacket, but too cold for a T-shirt. I decided to leave my jacket off so that I could walk in my T-shirt. I would just end up having to stop and strip it off after going into a sweat anyway after climbing the first mountain. It was a good decision because I did work up a sweat in the first few minutes, and later the temperature rose. Now that we've had three days of beautiful warm weather after the cold wet icy day last week, I can finally see signs of spring. I'm starting to see gnats and a few flies that are newly hatched for the oncoming spring here. The Rhododendron leaves which were curled from the ice storm are wide open taking in the sunshine. In fact I can see a little bit of glisten on the leaves as they reach up to the the midday sun. There are tiny spurts of green grass starting to come up along the trail as the sun shines through the leaves and trees. As the sunshine peaks through the leafless trees, I hear woodpeckers in the background looking for bugs that are newly hatched. The birds are chirping to each other as they prepare their nests for their new hatchlings later. Yes, spring is coming and I can't wait after this brutal late winter. However, I also can't forget that we're less than 30 miles from the Smoky Mountains. At 6000 feet it will still be pretty cold. We will get a repeat of additional late winter while we're going through the Smokies. The last couple of days have been what this is all about. We've had great weather and good trails, although some went straight up making for difficult and long hikes. So it's been really nice. We will take the good with the bad or rather, the bad with the good. By that afternoon it was just downright hot. I sweat so much I drank 4 L of water and only peed once. After about 8 miles when I was hottest, I ran out of water about halfway up this giant mountain, one of the highest and steepest yet called Winding Stairs. I met with GMan who had some water from getting a ride from a local fellow who he described as a pretty colorful character. So we hiked up this huge, steep hill and by the time i got to the top I was absolutely spent. I was so tired I didn't even want to go downhill to get to the shelter, but of course I did. Anyway when I finally got to the shelter 9.1 miles later, I really felt the exhaustion of a very tough 9.1 miles. There were about six people there but since it was such a nice day, I wanted to tent anyway. Down the hill there was a nice space with the fire pit. Later we were joined by Noodles, Nomad, Mountain Man, and Piper. We all sat around and had us a little party with just the six of us. When everyone was ready to retire a little after 9:00 PM, or "hikers midnight", I went to the creek and gave myself a sponge bath using my handkerchief.   I was really starting to feel grungy, so it really felt good and lifted my spirits.   It's one thing to go without a bath, but a another to not wash certain areas, like my face, feet, underarms and private areas. If I don't at least clean up I get feeling like an animal. A dirty, stinking animal, less than human. The bugs are really starting to get bad, with gnats buzzing our faces in the day and mosquitos biting any exposed skin at night. I hadn't even seen any bugs until yesterday. It's like a switch was hit and all the bugs were born on what amounts to the first warm day of the year after a brutal winter that lasted into April. I climbed into my bugless tent to escape the ornery critters for the night. My sleeping bag was a bit warm, but I can let air in through the big opening at the bottom. Its nice being in a tent so I can take clothes off as needed. If I do that in a shelter I might get slapped or arrested.