Date: 2013-10-15
From: Camp Creek Bald

To: Rich Mountain
Miles today: 15.0

I wanted to spend at least one night out on the trail, so my wife dropped me off back at the top of Camp Creek Bald. This time I knew my way around the blue blaze trails. I hiked down to Allen Gap where we planned t meet for lunch and then I would take my full pack to head out towards Hot Springs. She was going to drive into Hot Springs and stay there for the night. It was a great hike down the mountain and I made great times. I kept passing great campsites which made me look forward to the evening when I would be camping out. At one point a hunting dog came towards me. I knew it was a bear hunting dog because I had heard people talk about the radio collars they wear. I was a little concerned about this hunting dog approaching me until I noticed how vigorously he was wagging his tail. He was supposed to be tracking bears, but he was much more interested in socializing. He walked with me for about a mile and then trotted off into the forest. About 45 minutes later I came to a gravel road where two pickups full of hunting dogs were parked while several hunters were standing around. "You're not missing a dog, are you?" I asked them. "Yeah, we are." they responded. "Have you seen him?" I told them he was hiking with me and then went his own way about 45 minutes up the trail. They did not seem concerned. "He will show up eventually" one of them said. It id make me curious how you can lose a dog that has a radio collar attached, but I hiked on. A couple miles later, I was hiking through a beautiful fir and rhododendron forest when I heard another hiker heading toward me, or, I wondered, could it be more bear hunters. Apparently bear season had just opened. It turned out to be my wife hiking up the trail to meet me. We hiked back down to the car and had lunch in the grass outside of "Mom's Store." I treated myself to an ice cream sandwich that I purchased from the elderly gentleman in the store who didn't look anything like "Mom." After lunch I headed up the next mountain with my full pack. I was surprised that it didn't feel bad to have a pack after three days of slack packing. It almost felt natural. I thought I would hike a few miles to the first shelter. As I was nearing the shelter I smelled a fire burning. I thought either I was near the shelter and the fireman who I had met earlier several times on the trail over the last two days had gotten there ahead of me and started a fire or there was a forest fire near by and I was in trouble. It turned out to be a group of bear hunters camped out on the top of a hill for the night with a blazing fire. Soon I reached the shelter. When I got there it was a pretty small and disappointing shelter with no nice camping areas near by. Also there were four firemen from South Carolina that were headed there for the night. The shelter looked like four people would fill it up. I decided to hike on to "the perfect campsite" which would also make tomorrow's hike into Hot Springs a bit shorter. I decided to start looking for s camp site at 5:30.For the next hour, I saw no place to pitch a tent, but it wasn't 5:30 yet. About 5:50 I saw a great campsite, but someone was already camping there. I asked if there were any more campsites a short distance on up the hill. He said yes. I was hoping he would say I could pitch my tent there, but I hiked on. Within 20 minutes I came t a great campsite with two benches and a fire ring. Benches on the AT are like a 5 star luxury. I pitched my tent, sat on a bench and ate supper, tried unsuccessfully to start a fire and climbed into my tent just as the sun was going down and read my book before falling asleep.