Date: 2006-04-12
From: Brown Mountain Creek Shelter

To: Cow Camp Gap Shelter
Miles today: 5.6
Weather: overcast clouds

12 Apr 2006 - Destination: Cow Camp Gap Shelter (5.6 Miles)08:00 - Last night I slept in the sleep sack, and used the sleeping bag as a blanket. It worked much better than sleeping in the bag. Brown Mountain Creek is not as clean as it looks at first glance. There are soap suds and soap scum in some of the eddies.The trek to the Cow Camp Gap Shelter is relatively short, but goes over the 4059 foot Bald Knob mountain. It will be a tough hike.NOTE: I have noticed that when I am going uphill (slope > 2%) I find I am pushing with my poles, with often extensive upper body involvement, and my hands grasp the pole handle with my thumb on top. I usually go about 0.5 to 0.75 mph on this kind of uphill. On reasonably level ground (|slope| <2%) I usually sort of fall forward, with the pole heads in my palms, using the poles to catch each fall step. This is my fastest moving mode, probably about 1.5 mph. With a steeper downhill (slope < -2%) then I am very careful because of potential slippage problems and I usually do not do more than about 0.5 mph. The pole hand holds while on the steeper downhill slopes seems to be pole heads in my palm. Depending on the terrain, my up/down hiking speed can be as low as 1000ft/hr. I have noticed that as I gain more hiking experience, the gait switches and pole hand holds are becoming automatic.10:00 - "Hit % Miss" showed up for a snack at the Brown Mountain Shelter just before I took off. We talked for a few minutes. They had gotten the note I left for them at an earlier shelter after I talked to "pnut butter". 11:00 - pack off break at a bench and sign about historic living along Brown Mountain Creek.11:15 - met Floyd & Gregory, two southbound hikers, who were talking to Hit & Miss (who had just passed me about 10 minutes ago), and with the four of us there, they all took pictures. After a few minutes of pleasant camaradrie, we all continued.11:55 - Pack off break, gorp & water.12:45 - Pack off break for lunch at road. Have gone 2 miles since shelter. At 13:05 an elderly gentleman with several young kids (5-8)? came by on a dayhike. He is the father of the owner of the "Mountain Sheppard Survival Course". We talked for a bit, then he continued southward, explaining the trail to the kids as he went. I finished my lunch and continued on. There were all kinds of folks coming down from Bald Knob and the Cow Camp Shelter. I summitted around 17:30-18:15, depending on which hillock you call the summit. It was a very hard climb with pack off breaks every hour or so. The vista from the top is an exquisite standard view - top of mountain, top of ridge views of more mountains with very little civilization.18:30 or so - David (from Boone, started flip flop in Damascus, just graduated NC State in Architecture) passed me also going north. We are each staying at the Cow Camp Shelter. I got to the shelter about 19:15 after tripping in the streambed while trying to figure out where to go. The signage locating the shelter was very confusing. It is about 0.5 miles down from the AT, and at the bottom there is a boulder filled creek. I was looking around while precariously balanced on some of the boulders when I fell, bruising my left leg with some minor cuts. David told me that yes, the catscoop was at Matt's Creek Shelter (vide supra). He said he saw it stuffed in the table. C'est la vie.We shared a long evening's conversation, ranging in topics from the architecture of no zoning Houston, to Chartres, to Paolo Solari's arcologies, to the James Wines led SITE group architecure of the "buildings as a joke" Best Products buildings. In addition we talked of the relevance of technology, and specific technologies, to history, noted some materials on science fiction (I. Asimov, RAH, A. C. Clarke, "The Star", "Rescue Mission") and the lack of democracy in most large scale science fiction (Foundation, ...), which seems to be dressed up versions of Rome, Moghul India, or China.