Date: 2016-04-05
From: Indian Grave Gap

To: Beauty Spot Campsite
Miles today: 2.3

Day 44 - Indian Grave Gap to Beauty Spot Campsite 4/5/16 2.3 milesWoke up and the temperature was around 38 degrees. Tom, Cheetah, and I went down to the road to wait for the shuttle to Uncle Johnny's ($27). It took about 20 minutes down a windy road. At Uncle Johnny's I bought a new Platypus dirty bag to filter my water from. The one that came with my Sawyer started to come apart at the nozzle. I also purchased an ultra-sil waterproof 18L Granite Gear food bag. RIP to Rusty Bridge's cheese wiz explosion Sea to Summit food bag.Headed back to Mountain Inn and the meal prep a la Tom Keegan began. He had dehydrated yams, lentils, mushrooms, green peppers, shallots, garlic, onion, carrots, olives, cranberries, papaya, cherries, apples, pineapple, wasabi peas, sunflower seeds. He also brought about 10 different kinds of spices. Cheetah and Tom prepared bags from the vacuum sealer and then Cheetah and I went through everything and created our own meals. After a meal was created Tom would vacuum seal the meal. Each meal weighed next to nothing. An example of a meal j made is: soba noodles, lentils, green peppers, shallots, onions, garlic, mushroom, and Thai teriyaki seasoning. We made more meals than we needed and created a bounce box for Damascus. Seriously amazing. He is too good to us. He is planning on sending pre-made meals once we let him know what works. After packing up all the food I ran over to the gas station for a new journal bc I go thru them so fast. Jumped into the car and went to Uncle Johnny's...again! Haha. We dropped off a bunch of food and I got a sticker for my Nalgene bottle. Then post office. I sent Truitt his bday present, Cheetah and I sent a letter to Mama Corncob in Hawaii.Tom drove us up to Indian Grave Gap and there we ran into Bear Bag and Nomad. Both older than 40 I'd say but sometimes it's hard to tell out here. Bear Bag is from Fayetteville, NC and Nomad is a Floridian who hiked with Frodo for a bit in the beginning. Mama Corncob and Corncob drove up with Coconut in the backseat. Coconut started with us on the 22nd back when his name was San Antonio. He is quiet but very friendly. It was nice being with another hiker who had experienced the same time frame as us. His name is Coconut bc he spilled coconut oil all in his backpack. Mama Corncob brought up the rest of the beer, fruit, etc and gave Nomad, Bear Bag and Coconut some trail magic. Cheetah and I started up the mountain. We hiked for two miles. We felt great and our legs were moving really fast. I think it's bc we had just had such a positive experience with Cheetah's dad and Corncob's mom. It was a sad goodbye. I know it was hard for both Cheetah and Tom to leave each other. She was in good spirits once we got going though. His visit definitely rejuvenated both of us.We got to Beauty Spot which was an amazing bald with beautiful views. Right after the bald we ran into a campsite with Rhodo, Honeybuns, Snap and Corncob. We had only gone 2.4 miles but they wanted us to stay there for the evening. This is the 1st time Cheetah and I have had conflicting choices on what to do. I wanted to continue on but Cheetah wanted to stay. In the end we stayed. Nomad and Bear Bag showed up along with a 19 year old NH girl named Mambo. A guy named Miles also showed up. Big fire and then we headed up to the bald for the sunset. Simply gorgeous. Layers upon layers of mountain ridges. Fiery oil-painting of a sunset. I sat in silence for the entirety of the sunset. Then the stars came out. Before that Snap set up a hilarious photo shoot of Honeybuns with the last of the light behind him. I died laughing. Built a fire on the bald and now I'm sitting here with Corncob, Honeybuns, Cheetah, Rhodo, and Snap. Going to walk back to the campsite soon.