Date: 2014-05-08
From: Rock Gap

To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 3.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 11: Rock Gap to Winding Stair Gap to civilizationI woke up knowing that I could not dawdle today, Dah Wah He would be picking me up around 10 and I didn't want to chance being late. Wallet, Ironhead and I left together and cut through the low brush to arrive at the road below where we had tented. A short distance later we re-entered the woods on the side of the parking area and began a modest climb. There was only this one up hill today but we walked for over a mile before the trail ceased to rise ahead of us. We arrived at Wallace Gap about a 12 mile from our start; here the trail crosses a road marked with a sign indicating that Standing Indian Campground is not far away, that explains the cars last night. We crossed the road and climbed stairs built into a narrow slice of the hillside. It was there that we started to each fall into our own pace, with Ironhead forging ahead, me in the middle and then Wallet. As I walked, I tried to maintain focus on the day; not wanting my mind to drift to the new job I was about to take, or the travel arrangements back home. I just wanted to remain in the present. I breathed deeply, as if inhaling would somehow store mountain air inside me when I headed back to the city. I gazed at the blue sky, I admired the tall spindly and thick trees alike. I tried to feel the weight of my footfalls on the soft-packed earth. ¢Stay here,¢ I would silently, yet emphatically demand of my mind when it would start to wander away. ¢Be grateful.¢ Somewhere on this path, when I was trying to fully absorb the experience as if it might be my last time, I felt the lump in my throat. Why this happens, I don't quite know, but it does on at least some of my hikes. It is an overwhelming sense of¢¦ ? Not sadness, not joy, nor anger, frustration; no, it¢s more like a sense of surrender. It is a letting go, a release, a drop of expectations, of control, of the false sense that somehow anyone of us is really in control. There¢s really no better way for me to explain what I think that feeling is, but then I suppose there¢s no need to explain it either. Suffice to say, it very nearly always ends in tears or choking them back. It used to bother me that for no good reason I would be sobbing like a child. But now, in age, or wisdom, or true surrender, I've loosened that grip on my emotion and just go with it.The last few milesAfter a bit of time, I started hiking again and arrived at the top of the hill I had been climbing, there was a small clearing to the right and from there, I was able to get a partial view back over the mountains; it was not a great view, but at least one last one. I turned back toward the trail when I noticed a small green shoot with a curled leaf over the top. I had finally seen my first Jack-in-the-Pulpit!. It was one of only two in a small patch of grass in the middle of a dirt path that led from the partial mountain view, back to the trail. Its location was the equivalent of being in the middle of a highway and I wondered if it would survive its season. I was delighted to see this flower, and it made the remaining walk downhill to the road at Winding Stair Gap a joy-filled one. The past is prologueWhen I arrived at the gap, Ironman was there; he had waited to say goodbye. We chatted for a little bit with Wallet when he arrived a few moments later. Wallet was planning to get into Franklin and making a call for a ride. DWH had not arrived yet, and since I had another 20 minutes, I offered to cross the road and hike a little bit of the north side of the trail with Ironhead as he continued on to Wayah Bald. We crossed the highway and I felt so light without my pack. When we reentered the woods, I retraced the first steps I had taken on the trail last year. We arrived at the footbridge which crosses a small waterfall and said goodbye.I returned to the south side of the road and cleaned up a bit while waiting for Dave. When he did arrive, there was a gentleman with me who was looking for a ride back to the Rock Gap parking area I passed this morning. We dropped him off and then headed north for Asheville where I would pick up a rental car and visit with Dave for the night. Goodnight from a mattress in Asheville, back in civilization, but still at the foot of a mountain so not quite back yet . A GIGANTIC thank you to DWH, for picking me up in Atlanta almost two weeks ago and depositing me at Amicalola Falls and then picking me up today near Franklin and bringing and helping me get settled back into the non-hiker universe. More photos for day 11 of the trip can be seen at: 2000Miler_Day11