Date: 2014-05-06
From: Pine Swamp Branch Shelter

To: Laural Creek Shelter
Miles today: 18.5

It was an easy warm up walk at the beginning of the day. The coolness of the woods felt good from the heat of yesterday. Unfortunately it would be short lived. With the warming though comes new flowers and budding leaves. Now seeing terrilium of different colors and the leaves on the trees are filling out. This is nice but on the down side it is cutting into our views of the mountain sides. Had a big up without the usual rocks and a gentle slope which made the hiking enjoyable. This was followed by a very long climb down to War Spur (don't you wonder where they get these names?) where I took a lunch break and spent some time soaking my feet in the creek. The water is still pretty cold to the point where I can only put my feet in for about a minute before they start to ache! My new shoes are really helping and each day they ache a little less. Well have to move on so up the hill we hiked with a 1700 foot climb during an afternoon that had to be in the low 80's. It helped to have a couple of springs at which I would camel up by drinking a liter of water and then refill my bottle to make sure I was always carrying enough. Stopped off at Kelly's Knob for some great views and a refreshing breeze. It was so nice I lingered for about a half an hour enjoying the view and making some phone calls. I really enjoyed talking to Laura and Elliott and to hear he is crawling everywhere. News like this makes me seriously miss home but comforts me to know that all is well with everyone. Made the shelter before the crowd began to pull in and got a nice level spot to pitch my tent. This isn't always the case since oftern the shelters are located on small knobs on the side of steep hills so to have one makes for a much better nights sleep. Davinci, Cromwell from England, Gargamell (sp?) from Germany and Cowboy from Buffalo are here also. The 3 of them have been hiking together for a number of weeks. There are also some new faces; Trail Light a section hiker, Tip Toe, Bismark and Hopper, Solo and others I haven't come to know yet. Many are tenting and I have my tent flys open to catch the breeze that is out tonight. You know its getting warm because everyone is in their tents already because the bugs are coming out now. Gray Ghost is also here now. I enjoy his company and have hiked with him before. Has anyone ever heard the cry of a Whiperwill? Its a real interesting call for about the first minute or 2. After that it becomes very annoying and we had one start calling at about 630 and did not stop until well past 9! I really think that if one of us had had a gun, there would have been one less bird in the woods. It was like he was off his rocker and he wouldn't even take a breath between calls. And to make matters worse, he started up again in the morning around 530 and was still going at it when I left around 630! It's funny how when you look around it seems everyone is studying for a final exam when in actuality they are studying their AWOL book guide or Hiker's Companion guide to figure out their plan of action for the next day. For us its always about logistics. Where am I going, how far am I going, what do I face in getting there, where is there water and what will I eat during the day to get there and what will I eat when I get there. But the nicest part is when you look to see where the nice views are of points of interest as these are truly the highlights of the day along with the people you are with. The hard part about tomorrow is one shelter is only 12.4 miles away and the next is 22.5 miles away. One is too close and the other is quite far. We'll see what tomorrow brings. God always seems to get us where we need to be.