Date: 2006-06-03
From: Day 17-Rock Gap to Siler Bald Shelter

To: Day 17-Rock Gap to Siler Bald Shelter
Miles today: 7.9
Weather: clear sky

June 3, 2006 Rock Gap to Siler Bald ShelterDay 17. Rock Gap to Siler Bald Shelter (7.9 miles)Ris« dropped us back at Rock Gap (near where she had picked us up on Saturday) at 9:00 a.m. We decided not to hike to the Wasilik Poplar even though it is the second largest poplar tree in the United States. The diameter of this very large tree would be the equivalent to the diameter of the largest branch of the Grizzly Giant Sequoia we saw last summer. So using that for perspective, we decided to hike on towards Siler Bald Shelter and save ourselves a mile.Just before we reached Wallace Gap, we saw our first trail magic. There was a cooler and several plastic sacks with pop, beer, wine, candy and suckers. The only problem was that everything was gone except half of a bottle of wine and a couple suckers. There were lots of empty bottles and cans. We decided we weren¢t interested, and continued on our merry way.We arrived at Winding Stair Gap and US Highway 64. There we noticed an older hiker being dropped off by a pick-up truck. We never saw him again, so he must have been heading south. There was a couple with their daughter also being dropped off. As we hiked on up the Trail, the elevation changes were not serious¢¦just LONG ups and downs. The first shelter, and our goal for this day, was Siler Bald at 7.9 miles. That will make it a relatively short day. But the next shelter is 12.6 miles on down the Trail. We met several groups of day hikers coming down the mountain as we were going up. We stopped for lunch and the mom/dad/daughter group that we had seen earlier passed us. We found out later that they called themselves the Hiking Highsmiths. We finished lunch, took off again and passed them a short time later. They were just starting their section hike and didn¢t appear to be in the best of shape. After several more ups and downs, we reached the Blue Blaze Trail to the shelter and turned and headed down to it. This particular Blue Blaze Trail is a loop trail which means we can continue past the shelter in the morning and get back on the AT. The Highsmiths showed up at the same shelter about an hour later. It has been a relatively cool day and tonight it is supposed to drop into the low to mid 40¢s! Dennie will be glad he didn¢t swap out his heavy sleeping bag for just a flannel sheet. The Highsmith family group is currently hiking the AT in sections. This time they began at Winding Stair Gap and planned to hike through to Fontana Dam. We found out their names are Charles (the dad-called Mad Dog), Kathy (the mom ¢ no trail name yet) and Kaitlin (the daughter-called Slider after she slipped on a wet area in the Smokies). We had a pleasant evening, fixed dinner, and cleaned up. Mad Dog decided to build a fire and we still had time to play several games of UNO with our new friends from Jacksonville, Florida before it was bedtime. This family has a unique approach for battling the mouse problems at shelters. They place moth balls all around the inside of the shelter and around their clothes and on tops of their packs. We hope it works!Denley and I just hung our packs from the mouse cables and opted not to use the moth balls. We went to bed around 8:30 mostly because it was getting so cold and we knew the sleeping bags would be warm and cozy. We had a very cool night accompanied by Mad Dog¢s VERY loud snoring. Denley said it made my snoring sound like a purr. Just before we left Florida, I had added a silk liner for my sleeping bag to my equipment. The silk liner does provide seven or eight degrees of extra warmth and it also has a hood which helps provide protection for my Bald Eagle head!