Date: 2013-06-30
From: Allen Gap

To: Flint Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: broken clouds

Scrambling hand and foot up rocky walls only to struggle down just on the other side. Mud pits await me in between. Recent footprints in the mud bring hope. I am following in the footsteps of those who have gone before me. I am on the right path. These furtive clues are the only markings since the blazes are very infrequent. Looking down I notice bear prints in the mud over the prints I'm following. What a group we make. Lone hiker following a bear who is following other hikers. This section is so very technical. My poles sometimes get in the way and I even fall a couple times. This passage has exacted a blood toll. Flashback to last night: It seems that the road we are near us a well traveled one. Cars and motorcycles sound on into the night. The worrisome thing is the steady cracking of branches. Something big this way comes. Getting out of the tent I can't see anything. Smit peers out and is thinking the same as me. Since there is nothing to be done about it we head back in. The animal turns out to be some raccoons. They routinely patrol the area throughout most of the night. Needless to say, neither of us gets much sleep. Waking up early we head out by 7 or 7:30. The trail goes into a 3000 foot climb that is bone wearying. Smit is somewhere up ahead - I won't see him until the afternoon. Foot after foot I let music and poetry help fuel my steps. Steady but slow I make it up. Now I face a choice. Do I go over the ridge or take the bad weather bypass. Clouds have sporadically been moving about and the forecast is for heavy rain. I am curious about the ridge because the guide book calls it "rocky and strenuous". Nothing else has warranted that warning. I must try it out. The trail starts innocently enough but soon becomes very difficult. Up and over, down and around large rocky outcroppings. I'm constantly climbing up or down over large slippery rocks. The way is not marked well so I try to follow the footprints. I only end up making one wrong turn and since it leads to a cliff I figure it out pretty quick. One view is outstanding. To the west are farms nestled amongst clearings in the mountains. It almost looks like Illinois. To the east are unending layers of mountains. Where is this trail taking me?Tired but alive I make it through the ridge. Smit walks up behind me. He took a nap at a cliff overview. We decide to press on since the rain is holding off the blue skies don't even hint at what is to come. With Smit powering ahead I keep to my pace. Up and climb to Big Butts. It's another drastic change in the trail - grassy fields. The grass is as tall as me and overhangs the trail. The lack offerings makes it disconcerting to follow a not-to-visible trail. Large smashed down areas hint at the beasts who slumbered here earlier. It seems like quite some time but the trail moves off the grassy top. Now we are on an old rocky road. The road winds around past a couple of gravesites where a couple AT hikers are buried. Looking more like a road again. It fills up with ankle-breaker size rocks. This really makes the going rough. The shelter appears and I'm ecstatic. I look for a spot away from the food hanging cables and old branches that may fall. Tent up, I settle in to eat. Smit and I talk about the trail and the days to come. He is planning bigger miles so I will probably lose pace with him. Just after getting more water the rain starts. I hurry into the tent and put everything into plastic and then into my pack. I don't want water splashing through the fly to get things soaked. Within a short time the thunder in banging away right overhead. The rain is so strong that I soon find myself in a waterbed. The water running down the hill is pooling under my tent. I quickly make my way to the shelter bringing my gear with me. My tent will have to experience the storm.