Date: 2013-04-02
From: Camp Creek Bald

To: Sams Gap
Miles today: 22.6

(In which I take a leisurely day and follow it with an ambitious night hike)Communications towers galoreCamp Creek Bald winds up being a complete disappointment. I thought I might be able to catch the sunrise from halfway up the lookout tower, just shy of the tangle of razor wire that prevents access. Instead the sun rose behind the trees my hammock had been pitched under. I could only have seen the horizon from atop the lookout tower, but from halfway up its stairs I the sunrise was blocked both by the trees and the tower. Disappointed, I pack up camp and head down from the mountaintop.That was not my only photo opportunity for the day. Close ahead of me are two cliffs indicated in the guidebook. They are located on short side trails a couple miles beyond Camp Creek Bald. Interesting too is that one looks east and the other looks west, giving me completely different backdrops. Before these cliffs there is Jones Meadow, and I am repeatedly tricked into expecting it as I cross over streams. In the guide only one stream is shown to be between my campsite and the meadow.Jones Meadow is on a side trail to the west. I do not go to investigate, being preoccupied by the cliffs further north. However, after I pass the side trail I spot a fire tower on the ridge to my west. I was not expecting a fire tower, as none was listed in the guidebook. Not one to pass up this opportunity, I drop my pack and move straight uphill with my camera. I connect with the Jones Meadow side trail near a woods road, and take the road toward the tower. It turns out it is just another communications tower, which from the distance and through the trees appeared to be a fire tower. I take a couple photos to document this trick, as well as a couple of the meadow while I am here. The meadow is a rather ugly affair, having short trampled grass and the marks of some new digging or construction on the south edge.Black and white cliffsI return to my pack and keep moving north. A sign indicates the short side trail to Whiterock Cliff. I again ditch my pack and poke down the side trail. This is the first proper cliff I have encountered - the trees give way to low vegetation, and that gives way to stone, and that gives way to air. I shoot my photos and continue up the Trail a short way to Blackstack Cliffs. At first I am tricked by a couple blue-blazed side trails back toward the meadow. A sign similar to the one indicating Whiterock Cliff shows me the proper side trail.This trail leads to a view both more and less interesting. My views until now have been on mountains and hills reaching out into the distance. From the cliff I have a view past lower ridges onto distant flat lands in Tennessee. I can see south back over Jones Meadow to the pincushion of towers atop Camp Creek Bald too. After I am done at Blackstack Cliffs I head back to the trailhead. While I rearrange my pack, I hear voices faintly to the south. I wait on the side of the Trail to see who is approaching.Noisy day hikers and Big Firescald KnobThe folks that overtake me are not familiar faces from the last shelter. This is a party of four older folks, only once with even a day pack. One of them introduces two of them with trail names, and says they are about to be thru-hikers. I don't inquire with them about that statement, but surmise that means they are walking a section they missed on a past thru-hike. Up ahead there is Big Firescald Knob, and it has a bypass trail. Maybe they took the bypass trail the last time they were in the area.I beckon the party pass me, as they are not encumbered as I am. They suggest I will just pass them soon enough. That turns out to be the case, and I cannot slow down or wait long enough to get out of earshot. I overtake the group at the bypass trail. The sign here indicates hikers should use the bypass in poor weather, and the guidebook indicates Big Firescald Knob is a rocky and strenuous section. I press on ahead of the group, which stays in earshot as I pull ahead.At first the Trail is not very strenuous, but soon it climbs hard to reach the ridge. Big Firescald Knob shows me it can be strenuous as I carefully pick my way along the predominantly rocky walk. At the top I encounter another hiker, Can't Wait, making a phone call. I exchange a quick greeting and move on to shoot my photos from the next good outcropping. In spite of the rocky terrain, vegetation still grows close beside the Trail and obstructs most views. I shoot photos from one outcrop and keep moving. The loud day hikers have reached Can't Wait. Their voices project well as they talk about subjects of civilized folk.I hear about sports and other generic talk of people living in the world currently far below me. This talk does not interest me and I want to distance myself from it. Can't Wait passes me as I try to figure out how to get around a blowdown. It turns out it isn't on the Trail, as he finds a blaze keeping the Trail on the ridge where I thought it was switching back away from the top. Can't Wait was at the last shelter but passed me while I was at one of the cliffs. He started at Springer well after I did and has been walking at least 20ww miles almost every day. I keep up with him briefly, holding his pace to get away from the loud voices behind me.Peace restoredCan't Wait pulls away gradually, but the day hikers must have turned off down the bypass trail and back from whence they came. I hear their voices no longer, and am back to being alone for a while. I catch back up to Can't Wait at Jerry Cabin Shelter. He is having lunch here and I join in. I am planning to walk a long day and maybe into the night, so it is a large lunch. Having not properly met, we share some of our stories. I inquire about how the last shelter was last night, and find it had been a mess in addition to Crush beingvaick with iodine poisoning, someone else starred getting sick overnight. They are turning back to Hot Springs with a third hiker. Can't Wait goes ahead as I go down to the nearby spring and filter some water. I continue north shortly afterward.Between here and the next shelter I find Big Butt Mountain. As I am not really mature, I decide to take the side trail to the summit. The trail passes behind the mountain and in the shadows some snow still lingers. As the blue-blazed trail comes back to the AT I realize I accidentally took the bypass trail. I drop my pack here and retrace to AT back to where I departed it. When I get back to my pack, I let myself visit the nearby, unspectacular summit of Big Butt Mountain. Satisfied with the little detour, I pack up and keep moving.In this section of the Trail there are a few trailside memorials. The first is just south of Big Butt Mountain, the memorial to Howard C. Bassett. He thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in the 60s, and died before I was born. His ashes were scattered at this memorial a year later. The Trail seems to call past hikers back to pick up packs and walk it again, or to run trailside hostels for aspiring thru-hikers. Here a past hiker has come back to remain on the Trail, and that seems appropriate. Further up the Trail, beyond the mountain, there is a small memorial to members of the Shelton family perished in the Civil War.Long night hikeShortly beyond the Shelton memorial, the Trail drops abruptly to lower elevation. I descend steeply into Flint Gap and then climb over another small rise to reach Flint Mountain Shelter. Can't Wait is here, done early for the day. I meet a new face here, going by the trail name Artimus. He might be a section hiker, and might finish the Trail this year. However he may also turn this section hike into a thru-hike. He would finish this section and press onward to Maine before jumping back south to finish the section from below here to Springer Mountain, covering the entire Trail in one season. I eat dinner while chatting with these folks. They are preparing bundles of wood for a fire tonight, keeping busy in spite of their short hikes today.I am surprised that only Can't Wait has passed be today, given how many folks were at Little Laurel Shelter. Nobody shows up here while I am resting briefly and contemplating a night hike. The situation is similar to my other big night while over Albert Mountain - leaving at 1800 hours with the same distance to the next shelter, but with a bigger climb. The ascent from Devil Fork Gap to Lick Rock is 1600 feet of steady elevation gain over four miles. I decide to go for it, as I have only made 11 miles so far today and it will be a nice night.As I pass through Devil Fork Gap I pass near civilization. A trailer community is to the east and some other housing can be seen to the west. The Trail runs near a stream, and a print in the mud has a handy scrap of paper next to it indicating it was made by a bear. It follows the stream uphill, switching back on the adjacent mountainsides to keep up with the stream's climb and crossing it thrice. After departing the stream I climb further through a gap and toward the top of Lick Rock. It is twilight as I cross over the mountaintop, a fence at my side probably indicating property lines at the North Carolina - Tennessee border.I turn on my headlamp as I start down from Lick Rock. It is completely dark when I reach the dirt road at Rice Gap. I climb away from the gap slowly. My phone has little remaining battery life so I have turned it off and I have no concept of the time. It is 1.2 miles to the next shelter, but by the limited light of my headlamp I have little concept of distance. This works out in my favor, and I reach the side trail to Hogback Ridge Shelter. It is a short side trail and I can see the shelter. I pause and consider approaching. It is a small shelter, and it may be full. I don't want to trouble people with the noise of me arriving and setting up camp.I decide I will not even stop at the shelter and press on to Sams Gap. There is a restaurant a couple miles from the trailhead, and I devise plans to camp right at the trailhead and get a nice breakfast of town food. From the shelter there is one last little climb before the Trail descends into the gap. It is stubborn about approaching the gap though, and climbs any little rise on the way down. I am following an old fence once more, and a couple times I snake through it to the other side.After a while picking my way down the ridge I can see lights below me. I wonder if that is where the Trail reaches the road. If that is the case, I am loath to sleep so close. I do not want to be too conspicuous near a highway, where passersby unaware of the Trail may think me a drifter or otherwise undesirable. When I get closer to the road I see the trailhead is not near the lights. The Trail comes out to a steep gravel road, which in turn intersects a paved road that passes under I-26.I stop near the gravel road and survey my surroundings. There are no good hammock spots nearby, so instead I try something new. I find a spot where low vegetation has been flattened. It is a rough surface but softer than packed earth, so I lay my hammock down as a ground cloth. I use the rain fly to make a sort of lean-to shielding me from the highway, holding two corners up with my trekking poles. It takes some time to make the trekking poles hold steady, using parachute cord for guide lines. Eventually I am satisfied and set out my sleeping bag. I feel like it is midnight, but am surprised when I check the time on my camera. It is only 2230 when I am ready for sleep.Peace,