Date: 2011-03-26
From: Carter Gap Shelter

To: Rock Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: moderate rain

Another tremendous day, rain, 100 miles and double super trail magic at the perfect times. Games, shared dessert and a dry shelter (well almost) and I now have a trail name.As mentioned yesterday we expected rain and it didn't disappoint. The rain started at about 3:30 this morning and around 6 I started to pack up as it stopped for a bit but not long enough to finish. Hung out in my tent for about 30 minutes till I heard others awake in shelter then took my stuff there and finished packing and then some breakfast of pop tarts and gorp. Finally left and started walking at 8:15 in the pouring rain, I was on a mission to sleep in the shelter tonight so you have to get there early and I had 12 miles to do. Pretty much kept up a 3 mile an hour pace most of the day. About 5 miles in as I am walking down the trail I hear someone scream hot coffee from off to the side, turn a there is a tent setup with trail magic. Fishing Fred, Aj, and two other hikers from 98 are making hot coffee and blackberry pancakes with butter and syrup. Walk up and he flips a small pancake off the grill into my hand and I pour liquid butter and syrup on it and eat it. 2 pancakes and 4 cups of coffee later and an orange to go I head back to the trail to climb Albert Mountain. The trail magic is at the perfect time to refresh just before the climb which was almost rock climbing for .2 miles. Didn't climb the fire tower as it was closed, wouldn't of mattered as everything is covered in fog and rain anyways. A little further I pulled into Big Spring Shelter for a ten minute reprieve where I meet Little Drummer boy and talked with Granpappy who is who I traded TP for ziplocks in Dohlonega. A little further down the trail i realized i was somewhere near the 100 mile mark, so i carved a 100 into the mud and leaves and took a picture of it. Another milestone down. Left there and rushed to the shelter where I was the first to arrive for the evening. It says it is an 8 man shelter but we have 7 wall to wall. They all over estimate so far but I know there are ones that are different. As I am sitting in the shelter eating lunch going on my second english muffin with slices of pepperoni and string cheese two guys walk up and tell us there is pizza and beer .2 miles down the trail at the road crossing. They talk a bit and ask if we have trail names and phil let's them know I just got mine 10 minutes ago. So what is it? Well I happened to carry a package out of Hiawassee hanging from the bottom of my pack with my english muffins in it so they wouldn't get crushed, after eating them phil asked f that was what i carried from town, so now I am Muffin Man. So back to the trail magic, although a few of us had eaten we couldn't pass up pizza. We headed down and ate two slices of pizza several oreos and an orange soda provided by Pebbles and three other hikers from last year. Stepping back just a bit when I arrived at the shelter two ladies and another couple of hikers where here. Two headed out then the other two left shortly later. The trail passes right in front of the shelter maybe 50 yards out. But has two entrys I found out as I stripped out of my wet clothes and the two ladies who where actually southbound unlike everyone else passed right back by the front of the shelter. HahaEveryone arrived t the shelter in typical order with Phil and AJ first followed by Lindsay, Pappy, Sheperd and much later Memphis, who is hanging from the rafters in his hammock. Everyone cooked dinner and afterwards I introduced everyone to pistachio pudding with a chocolate graham cracker pie crust. Everyone always seems to enjoy it and Shepard probably ate half of it. That was pretty much all I remeber at this time for the day which could have been horrible with the weather like it is. Tomorrow we have to walk 3.5 miles to another road to catch a shuttle into town by 9 where we resupply and possibly take another nero if the weather forcast we heard today is true. Freezing rain expected and if so we will stay in town for the night and try to avoid the brunt of the storm.