Date: 2005-04-18
From: Rich Mt. Firetower

To: Camp Creek Bald
Miles today: 12.6

Moose and I broke camp just after the other couple but got a little bit of a let start. we ate breakfast and as we were packing up Poet passed us. she was the first to leave from the pond. We hiked to spring Mountain shelter where we had a snack and Moose used the privy with half a seat. while we were at the shelter domino, scholar, Blue Light, and Boots showed up. I stayed for a while and then moved on. I caught domino sortly there after. He was stopped in the trail and signaled for me to be quiet and to get my camra out. I had no clue what he was looking at. as I got closer I saw that there was a two foot long snake in the trail. I snapped a few pictures and we moved on. I was in the lead and less than five minutes later i spotted another small snake in the trail. after that I was a little jumpy and every stick I saw, I kind of paused thinking it was a snake. we got to a road crossing where there was a sign saying TRAIL MAGIC. It promised us beef stew and ice cream so we were not going to miss it. the sign said to continue on trail east and turn at the sign. We took that as "continue on the trail til we see a sign" so that is what we did. a mile and a half later we ran into cycle hiker who said that we had missed it and that it was back at the road. so we dumped our packs in the woods and jogged back the trail a mile and a half. We found the house. Moose and a few others were already there so we went on in. they had a nice log cabin that they invite hikers into and feed them. it is amazing how nice these people are. their names were Hercules and F.A.L. they had thru hiked in 99 and now just do trail magic out of their home in Marshall NC right by the trail. the stew was to die for, and the ice cream cake was just as good. I must have had 5 glasses of sweet tea. One of thir friends, Nean, who lives up the road, came over to shuttle a section hiker who was hurt. Nean has hikes the AT, the PCT, and the continental divide 3 times each. After lunch they let me use their phone to call Osprey about my pack. they are going to send me a new pack to hot springs this weekend when I am back there for trail fest. after all that nean offered to drive us back to the other side of the mountain where our packs were, and also where he lives. We got our packs and walked to Nean's house. He has a nice place about 75 yards off the trail on Log cabin rd. He has a small bunkhouse there where he puts up hikers for 10 bucks a night. We would have stayed but we needed to make miles so we drank a pepsi and moved on north. We got to Little Laurel shelter and decided to climb the next mountain so we did not have to do it in the morning. So Moose, domino, boots, and bluelight did another 1.2 miles in hopes of camping at the firetower on the top. we made it to the top after a tough climb only to find that it was an operational firetower with a bunch of motors and generators running and no place to camp. We did find a place just below it that would do, but we could still hear the generators on the top running. We cooked dinner and built a fire. Boots inspired me and I tried my hand a whittling. I attempted to carve a person but failed miserably so I went to bed.