Date: 2004-05-29
From: Punchbowl Shelter

To: Seeley-Woodworth Shelter
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

This day probably marks my most eventful. While it was good overall, it had its ups and downs. My day unexpectedly began aroun 1:00am. Early bird catches the worm? Not this early! A woman from the Virginia Venture Group (who was camping nearby) woke the guy next to me (Rick) to inform him that they had losr a member of their group. Apparently, they hadn't seen her since they were on the 1/2 mile walk up from the parking lot at 9:30pm last night. Kate, a 16 year-old, blackbelt in Tae Kuan Do had never made it into camp. No one knew where she went missing, so Rick jumped up to help & I soon followed.I walked the 1/2 mile down to the parking lot to be greeted by a couple Sherrif's deputies & a very worried mother ( who happened to be with the group). Rick was making plans to find Saddle Gap Trail off some back road, hike up it, & try to find Kate where the trail intersected the A.T. Rick and I spent the next 3-4 hours driving old logging roads and hiking dead end trails trying to find the mystery trail. Eventually giving up on the Saddle Gap Trail, we headed back to the command post. I soon learned that this county is lacking a formal Search and Rescue team, so the deputy was fashioning a search team out of park rangers and volunteer firefighters. A helicopter had also been called away from D.C. where it had been guarding the Memorial in hopes that its infared would be of help. Rick and I both decided to get some sleep since he had been up since 5:00am the previous day and I was working on 1 hour of sleep after a 25 mile day. It was already 5:30 in the morning.I woke around 8:00am to learn that Kate had been found a half hour earlies at Salt Log Gap, not far from where Rick and I had been trying to get to. Apparently, Kate had not seen the sign for the Punchbowl Shelter and had continued walking for 5-7 miles on the A.T. This included a big climb over punchbowl Mtn. and Bluff Mtn. Knowing that the search was over, I headed out of camp around 9:15am on a few hours of sleep, two granola bars, and a couple slices of melon on of the Venture group members had been nice enough to share. I still wanted to hike my planned 24 mile day, so I pushed on, sometimes feeling strong, and sometimes feeling as though I were carrying lead wieghts. I ate lunch by the cool Brown Mtn. Creek and soaked my feet for a while. Then the A.T. followed along the creek where a small community of freed slaves used to live in the early 1900s.After doing some big climbs in the hot sun, I was about to crash when I arrived at Hog Camp Gap (about 18 miles into the day). The lack of sleep and intense hiking were really wearing into me. The Trail Angels who were at the gap couldn't have come at a better time! Caveman (GA -> ME 00') cooked up a hamburger for me with all the fixins', chips, soda, and watermelon. Before I left he gave me a couple tasty Nature Valley Trail Mix Bars and filled my water bottle. Its amazing how when I could really use some help, Trail Angels were there! Their generosity helped power me for the last 7.7 miles into camp. Well, I've gotten to this shelter and before totally crashing, managed to cook myself a tasty dinner complete with Chai Tea and set up my tarp (the place is packed with Boy Scouts). To top off an amazing day, I finally got to leave a Shelter Log*... Woohoo!