Date: 2007-05-04
From: Flint Mountain Shelter

To: Bald Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: light rain

Another big day, almost 19 miles. Started out going downhill for about 3 miles, then had a really big uphill, 2 and 1/2 miles over 1600 feet in elevation change. I hiked it pretty hard, not really stopping very often, trying to get it over with as soon as I could. Wound up taking me around an hour to finish it, but it took a lot out of me. The next 2 miles were downhill, and then a slight uphill to the next shelter. The "slight" uphill was about probably only 1/2 a mile, about 300 feet in elevation change, not anything too challenging normally, but it was the hardest thing I did all day because I had worn myself out earlier. Got to the shelter, which wasn't too close to the trail, and took off my shoes to took care of a few hot spots. Went to fill up on water, which was probably a good 0.3 or 0.4 miles from the shelter and got back for lunch. After lunch, I felt a whole lot better, re-energized and fresh. The rest of the day was up and down with a big climb at the end. When we got to the beginning of the big climb at the end, it started raining. Within ten minutes or so, it was really coming down, even hailing a little bit. The trail pretty much turned into a river, and my shoes are pretty bad about keeping water out. I got to the top of the mountain, which wound up being a couple of big balds (the name of the mountain, actually, is called "Big Bald") and I could hardly see anything. I sat at the top for a few minutes, waiting for it to clear out, but eventually I got restless and went on. The top reminded me of Max Patch, probably had some great views and was an awesome spot to hike over, but in this kind of weather it was just plain scary because I could barely see the next post telling me where the trail was. I soon got back under tree cover, it started raining again, but I only had about 10 minutes before I got to the shelter. At the shelter there were a couple of people I hadn't met yet: Yellow Snowman, one of his friends from Florida whose name I can't remember, and Roast Beef. All really cool people, we hung out for a few hours joking and laughing about other people on the trail. Eventually Bloody Nose, a young guy from Jasper, GA got to the shelter and stayed. A great end to the day. One of the guys I met on the trail before today told me some really interesting things about himself. I split a room with him at Elmer's Sunnybank Inn in Hot Springs, and these are a few things he told me about himself: 1. He came up and proposed the Hope Scholarship to Zell Miller. 2. He discovered Vitamin F, which in short, is gum smeared with male face grease. It is used to cure people who are addicted to certain drugs, or have trouble maintaining normal social interactions. He would take a piece of gum, wipe his face down with it to get all the grease on it, and put it back in the wrapper. The gum would be covered with pheromones that would help them; he'd tell them what the gum was, give it to them, and then the person would break into a big grin and laugh hysterically. He said he had success with it 72 times. 3. He wrote all the speeches to the movie Braveheart. All except for the one where William Wallace says "Yares from now, as yer lyin' on yer death beds..." Very interesting fellow. Really kind and comfortable to be around, just made some real unique claims that I thought you'd all like to hear.