Date: 2007-05-31
From: Trout Creek

To: Catawba
Miles today: 13.6
Weather: haze

Start: Trout Creek Camp - 680.9End: Catawba - 694.5Today was marked with a few highlights and a little excitment. We had met G-Force on the trail again and he was out in front on the trail just before Dragon's Tooth when he spotted a good sized copperhead that had luckily moved slightly just before he stepped on it. It was in the leaves between 2 rocks right in the middle of the trail. We climbed the bank and walked around but he was still almost impossible to see. Mac was on one side of it and I was on the other. I had taken one picture but wanted a closer one. As I moved in the snake must have felt cornered since I was behind it and it took off for the bushes. I snapped the picture while making a hasty retreat but was able to capture its large mid-section stretched across the rock.The next high point was my scaling the Dragon's Tooth, a large natural rock pillar that is slightly angled. I was close to the top when Mac called up and said "Lean over so I can take your picture, we can't really see you." That is when I looked down and realized how stupid I was. 50 to 60 feet down on the left to jagged rock and a 100+ feet down on the right over a cliff and this thing was like climbing the neck of a horse, only going up was easier than going down. I did get down in one piece.Each day for the past few days we have been threatend by thunder storms but we had not yet been soaked. We had 2 chances to resupply today @ 2 small stores which the book said had "a limited selection" but the first one served food and the second one was next to a very popular All You Can Eat (AYCE - the holy grail of thru-hikers) called the Homeplace. We decided to stop @ the first store for lunch and the second store, 6 miles later, for dinner. This way we would have a wider range of choices for resupply and get to pig out twice in the same day. About 2 miles after the first store we got hit hard with a thunder and hail storm followed by a 50 minute downpour.Mac, Buttercup, Shiver, and I were hiking together again today and Shiver and I were ahead in an open field on a hillside and under power lines when the first bolts of lightening struck nearby. Mac and Buttercup had not entered the field yet so they stayed in the shelter of the trees as Shiver and I raced up the hill for cover.At first it seemed like it would pass quickly and the trees would protect us but when it started to hail we knew we were in for a big storm. Shiver has an umbrella built into her hiking pole and I had teased her about it a few days before but boy I was glad she had it since we had no time for rain gear or to set up a tent. We huddled under the umbrella which covered our heads but the water still hit our packs and ran down our backs. The temperature also dropped rapidly so we were freezing by the time the rain began to let up. All the dry dust on the trail turned into a muck like wet cement and at one point while we were standing there on the hillside my feet just slid out from under me. As I got up each boot was encased in 2 to 3 pounds of mud. As soon as the worst of the rain let up we started climbing the rest of the mountain in order to warm up. We made it down to Catawba and hitched a ride straight to the restaurant because they closed @ 8:00 pm and we had lost an hour to the storm. We had to choose between the store and an AYCE dinner - priorities! When Buttercup was in the bathroom trying to wash some of the mud off before dinner she met a young woman who asked if she was a hiker. A few minutes later she came back in and said her father would like to meet us since he hiked as well. It turns out he was a trail angel of the highest magnitude and offered to drive us over to a hotel in Daleville (25 miles) and then bring us back to the trail in the morning. The man's name was Norman Gregory "Greg" whose trailname is "The Garbageman" since he picks up all the trash he sees on the trail when he hikes. - Thanks again Greg - you are a true "Southern Gentleman".We squeezed 5 into the hotel that night to save a few bucks and got hot showers and did laundry. I also got to pick up my new, better fitting, pack @ the outfitters.