Date: 2008-02-04
From: 1 mile south of Little Laurel Shelter, NC

To: Flint Mtn Shelter, NC
Miles today: 13.7

I woke up at 5:40am and stuck my stove outside the tent and brewed my Starbucks.Someone from Dallas signed my guestbook and said they cringe each time I mention Starbucks because they have a coffee shop. I have to stay with Starbucks until I find something I like better. :-)I like good strong coffee too. I always have the French Roast which is on the strong side.I'm always open to new stuff, but in the coffee I've tried, nothing is as good as my Starbucks French Roast. :-)I had one of the 3 pack waffles that Socks '05 sent to me at Hot Springs. I could enjoy them with an individual jelly pack for each waffle, but I only had 2 jelly packs for the 3 waffles.It is a nice lightweight item to carry for variety at breakfast time. Thanks again Socks!! :-)The rain last night only last about 2 or 3 hours, but then the wind picked up for most of the night. The wind was fairly calm by morning and it was in the 40's.I was packed and walking by 7:15am.I started climbing right away...maybe 500 feet by the time I got to Little Laurel Shelter about 25 minutes later.I signed the register and unloaded more smiley face stickers there, then I took my 2 water bottles and filled them both up at the nice spring there.I am carrying both water bottles because I think I remember it being a fairly dry ridge.I walked on and climbed another 1,100 or 1,200 ft climb to the top of Camp Creek Bald.There was still patches of snow and ice up there....hard to believe with as warm as it's been the last few days.In another couple miles, I could look through the leafless trees and see the cliffs I would be walking over soon. I kept going and did get to White Rock Cliffs first, then came to Blackstack Cliffs.I didn't stop for long because I knew I would be on a good ridge walk soon with lots of views.I was walking along and not really paying attention when I came to the split Trail. I saw the doubleblaze leaning right for the AT.I took it thinking I was headed up to the ridge walk. I kept walking and was apparently "dain bread".About 10 minutes later that brain kicked in and said; Hey, I'm walking downhill....not on the ridge.I backtracked the 10 minutes....uphill this time and when I got back to the Trail junction, I saw I was on the wrong Trail, but the blaze took me that way. Oh Well.....I walked on and in another 100 yards or so, I came up to the right junction.I headed up the ridge and thought for a minute about going back and taking the bad weather route because the first 100 yards was all ice.I kept walking very carefully and got into an area the sun hit and that was it for the ice....thank goodness! :-)I think I finally figured out why Caveman is staying half a day behind me....just so I'll clean out all the spider webs in the Trail. Smart kid! :-)I took a lot of pictures from the ridge Trail.That's a Trail that is designed specifically for playing because you climb and descend a bunch of the ridge rocks. The views are awesome up there, so it's worth the extra effort. :-)I stopped at Jerry Cabin Shelter and ate lunch. I was pretty hungry at 11am.I had some Thai Chili Tuna with crackers, some dried pineapple, diced peaches, beef jerky, nuts, raisins and a stick of cheese.I walked on and climbed towards Big Butt Mtn. I stopped for a minute at a marker for Howard Bassette who hiked the AT in 1968. He died in 1987.It started thundering in the west while I was there and the rain started lightly at first, and then settled in to a medium rain for the rest of the day.I got to the summit of Big Butt Mtn....and for some reason, I always think of Hippie Longstockings when I'm on this mountain. 8-)I kept walking in the rain and the fog had come in so thick that I could barely see 100 ft in front of me.I walked past the Shelton Grave site where two Union soldiers returning home on leave and one civilian boy, a relative, were ambushed and gunned down by Confederate soldiers.I started a descent towards Flint Gap. It was just steep enough that I really had to walk slowly to keep from sliding down the wet Trail.That was about a 1,000 ft downhill, then I headed back uphill to Flint Mtn Shelter.I walked in there at 2pm and decided to make an early warm dinner to take the chill off.I made some kind of potato and ham dinner, then made some orange spiced tea to wash it down.By the time I was done with all that, it was 3:30pm. I decided to stay. :-)I walked down to the stream and got water for coffee in the morning, then set up for the night.Another great day on the Appalachian Trail! :-)