Date: 2008-05-13
From: Cold Spring Shelter

To: Unknown Campsite
Miles today: 14.0

I absolutely froze last night. It had to be down in the 20s or 30s last night, and my 40 degree bad did not help. I maybe got 2 hours of sleep and had on every piece of clothing I own. Decided just to get up early and get going. Hiked out and passed Bear Bait and Homeward Bound. I stopped at an old firetower and met some section hikers who go to Millsaps. The hike was pretty much downhill, but very steep and rough. The "Step Down" was pretty much a 4 foot drop off a huge boulder. I made it to the NOC about noon and saw the Triforce already there. I went to the restaurant and had a huge pizza, a Sweetwater 420 (my favorite beer, finally found a place that had it), and ice cream with chocolate syrup. I sat outside the outfitters for a while and relaxed. I finally went inside to try to find a warmer sleeping bag. They didn't have any 20 degree bags, but the girl helping me was really nice and offered to call ahead to Fontana Dam to see if they had any. No luck, so I had to buy a Mountain Hardwear 32 degree bag. Conductor, Dr. Z, and Cornbread finally showed up, so naturally we went back to the restaurant. I had another 420 and a piece of Reese's Pie. Cornelius had a perfectly good hamburger and looks up at all of us and says "You know what this needs?" He then reaches into his pack, pulls out a pack of Spam, and puts it on his burger. All of us stare in amazement as he devours his burger, all smiles. And that's pretty much Cornelius in a nutshell. After that meal we decided to move to the Paddler's Pub. Since it had at least 3 walls and a roof, we decided it could be termed a "shelter". So we started drinking. We said we were going to leave at 7 to hike 2.5 miles up to some campsite in Conductors guidebook, taking off a little bit of the rought climb. 7 turned to 8, 8 to 9. Dawn, the bartender couldn't have been nicer to us. She obviously could see that Cornelius and I were hungry so she gave us a leftover pizza for free. We had all been ordering Pabst Blue Ribbon all night, thinking it tasted unusually good. The bartenders then realized that the Yuengling tap was actually hooked up to the PBR keg and vice versa. So we the best tasting PBR and the cheapest Yuengling we had ever had. At about 7 who should show up but Needles! He had taken a shortcut and booked it to catch up with us. He also informed us that on his zero day he watched Planet of the Apes, and that the female ape is actually Dr. Zerus, not Dr. Zaius. But Dr. Z decided to keep her name the same anyways. Rewind and Ringold also showed up and stayed around awhile. (Thanks for the round Ringold!) The U.K. guys showed up very late and had a round with us also.   At 9:30, Planet of the Apes (as Cornelius and Dr. Z. are now known) and I decided it was time to don headlamps and stumble up the mountain. It was not very bad going as all of our muscles were completely relaxed, and only took a little over an hour. There was however a fallen tree that was extremely difficult to navigate. Dr Z and I crawled under while Cornelius tight roped it over the top. We finally found the campsite and pitched the tents after almost just giving up and stopping in a clearing. We set up a very ugly bear line and got in bed. At 1130 we hear something, and it's Conductor stumbling into camp. He hiked all the way up in his Crocs, and doesn't even remember the fallen tree. I'm sure we'll regret this decision in the morning.