Date: 2016-04-15
From: Muskrat Creek Shelter 

To: Carter Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: broken clouds

4/15. - Day TenAfter yesterday's "the welcome to North Carolina crap out" I slept in today until about 8:30. It is tougher to get up out of a tent versus a shelter.I went up to the shelter to make coffee. Several hikers that stayed in camp were gone. Big Deal, who normally is not an early starter, left at 9:30. It was 10:00 before I had my shit together. By then people who stayed down in Bly Gap were stopping in Muskrat Creek for a break. Andy showed up. He attempted the "double bitch" out of Bly Gap and settled on stealth camping after the first "bitch". I think he was glad to see familiar faces as he camped all alone. The Mass came into the shelter, they also stayed at Bly Gap.So I was the last one to hit the trail with exception to Magic Man and Feel Good. When I left I could hear eukele music coming from Magic Man's tent.   I hiked out of camp with another hiker named Brandon (no trail name yet). I wonder if two Brandon's ever hiked together on the AT before. Regardless, it was short lived as I had a faster pace on what would prove to be fairly easy walking today.The big climb to 5,400 feet was the climb up Standing Indian Mountain. Because the Standing Indian Shelter is 1/4 the way up, I planned to eat lunch there. The Mass planned the same. As we were eating Brandon rolled in and another couple from Mass and then Ranger.The last I saw Ranger was when I passed the Plumborchard Gap Shelter yesterday. He was hanging out at the "mushroom tent". The mushroom tent is a multi-person tent that looks like the dwarf spawn of a M.A.S.H tent and a circus tent with a heavy dose of psychodelia. Ranger informed me that a group of 10 younger kids from Oklahoma created it. The Okies were here to 1) smoke pot, 2) pontificate the existence of extraterrestrials and alien abductions and 3) hike to Maine (in that order of priority as they have been at it since March 15 and only hiked that far).Evidently Ranger fell into their vortex. As I ate my AT pizza (tortilla, pepperoni, gooda cheese drenched in olive oil) Ranger rambled on about UFOs. His point was that the more you think about the existence of aliens the more likely they exist. I asked him if that theory carried over to beer and if I thought about a cold six pack of Tecates would they appear? The notion seemed to slip pass him.So after lunch the lunch bunch headed out to tackle the rest of Standing Indian Mountain. I left last as I had to fill up my water bottles. Ranger and the Masses left ahead of me.The break of the day came when I realized the trail up Standing Indian followed an old road bed. This meant many switchbacks, but a reasonable grade. I was flying up it. Now here is the weird part... I looked behind me and here comes Ranger!!!! I have no idea how he got in back of me? UFOs? Alien Abduction?After the long, but fairly easy climb up Standing Indian Mountain the trail began its descent. It was a long and easy descent. Easiest walking so far. I put on my iPod and cruised. I made it to Beech Gap Campsite by 4:30 but I had more energy. The next shelter was Carter Gap Shelter 3 miles away. I thought to myself... That's one lap around Memorial Park (park in Houston where I walked in preparation for my hike) and the terrain seemed almost the same with exception to an end of the day 400 feet climb. So I went for it and it was good walking. The walking was easy with exception to roots. I crossed over two decent size mountain stream (one was big enough to maybe even hold trout?). Also in the 3 miles the landscape change to a heavy understory of Rodadundren Trees (spelling?). These trees are NC's answer to Texas's Yaupon Tree. They cover the mountains.So I hiked into Carter Gap where there were familiar faces. I am told the hike tommorrow is not as easy as today's, which was the easiest so far.