Date: 2009-04-11
From: Spring Mountain Shelter

To: Camp Creek Bald Fire Road
Miles today: 9.9

Cell noneOG notesI think I'll defer the description of the day to C6.We did do a semi slack pack going southbound today. What I mean by semi slack pack is we hiked with some items out of our packs. Slackpacking is hiking with a smaller pack or no pack at all. This is a usually acomplished with the assistance of a vehicle that either brings you back to a civilized location or carries your load and hands it off to you further down the trail. In our case we were dropped off at the top of a mountain, where the trail comes near a road. We are being hosted in a wonderful home tonight so we were hiking back from the mountain top to this house. I said we were semi slackpacking because we had all of our gear and clothes but left most of our food here. The packs were not light so I'll deny slackpacking. Also the mountain top was 6 miles further north along the trail, so we were hiking southbound. We passed every white blaze even if they were behind us. No cheating here, we did the miles.Tomorrow after church and lunch in Greenville, Tennessee we'll ride back to the same mountain top and resume our trek north. We should end up at the same shelter tomorrow night as we would have if we wern't staying here. The best part is being able to attend Easter service. C6 notes We survived last night's storm just fine. Only had some thunder and lightening and rain for an hour or so, then just rain off and on through the night. Whew!Today was supposed to be a mostly sunny day, so it was extremely frustrating to wake up to another cold, wet, foggy day. (And it stayed that was until after pm.)   For most of our days we've been hiking in clouds and in the mud. BUT, there has been a huge highlight to today! We hiked almost 5 miles when we came upon a road with a very special sign on the trail marker post...inviting us to hike 350 yards to the right for some special trail magic. OG had heard about it in 2006, but had elected to pass it up, so we decided to not pass it up this time. The sign said the extra 350 yards would be very worthwhile.They were absolutely correct! Jodie and John Nelson (1999 thru-hikers FAL and Hercules) open their home and hearts to thru-hikers for a few weeks at this time of year. All you can eat, at any time of the day, and an invitation to go to church with them tomorrow (Easter Sunday). The invitation included a ride to 6 miles up the trail so we could hike today back to their house. We did that and just finished a delicious dinner. There are 16 of us here. We each took a shower, and our clothes are being washed right now so we'll have clean clothes to go to church with them tomorrow morning (Easter!). To help us feel comfortable, John and Jodie said they go to church with us in hiker clothes and crocs. They have done this Easter invitation for 3 or 4 years now.We will sleep all over their home on the floor tonight, have breakfast with them in the morning, go to church, go to a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet (we pay for our own food), and then they'll bring us back to where they dropped us off today.They offered this to yesterday's hikers, also, and took them 20 miles out to hike back yesterday and today. Turns out that group is Gangsta, Sport, Windup, Hermes, and Saint. The others here with us tonight are Tiger, Texas Chill, Dutch, Wicked Wahuna, and Half Pint. It's a great group, and we feel so blessed.Thank you FAL and Hercules for your trail ministry!!!Old Goat & Check Six