Date: 2016-04-12
From: Devil Fork Gap

To: Sams Gap
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: overcast clouds

Sure enough, the predicted rain was in progress when we woke up today. I figured the best course of action was more sleep, but an hour and a half later nothing had changed except the ground was wetter. Eventually, we made it to Devil Fork Gap where Princess dropped me off and she headed on to leave the car at Sams Gap. The rain was light, but steady and in the low 50¢s. For the next 3 or 4 miles, I was climbing. It wasn¢t a tough climb (with a slack pack), just long and I passed several hikers who were struggling under full backpacks. There were no long-range views because of the mist, but the hillside that I could see was quite nice and contoured around the hillside. I started just above 3,000 ft and climbed up to around 4,500 with a number of smaller ups and downs. The last 2 miles was a descent for me. A few sections were relatively steep and I had to take it slow because of the mud and slippery conditions. At that point the rain was over, but the mist still hung close and the tress were still dripping. I could hear the interstate a long way before I reached Sams gap.There weren¢t too many features along the way. I saw a few tents still set up with folks inside and I actually met more hikers going south than I passed going north. Early in the hike I passed a sign to a new hostel, and also a sign cautioning hikers about dogs. The sign wasn¢t cautioning hikers about angry dogs, it turns out the problem was that pet dogs were following hikers and then getting killed on the road - so hikers were asked to discourage friendly dogs from following them. The sign said that a local boy had lost 4 dogs already this year. I also encountered a day hiker headed south about 2 miles from Sams Gap who was spreading trail magic. He had a tray full of donuts and cinnamon buns and he also had apples and bananas. Any other day his goodies would have been gone in 20 minutes, but today there just weren¢t many hikers on the trail. For several miles along the trail there was an old barbed wire fence along one side of the trail. Later, the fence was on the opposite side and in some places, the old rusty barbed wire had been cut and rolled up. I remember from 2 years ago that Ranger told us this fence marked the state line between Tennessee and N. Carolina. It¢s in the open forest and I¢ve never asked anyone why it was put up. I also passed a large engraved stone beside the trail about a half mile from Sams Gap. It indicated that this section of the trail had been donated by the Moye family. It was inscribed with a very reverent and appreciative statement from the Moye family regarding the beauty and peace of the forest in this area. I talked a little yesterday about my rain gear. Even with my poncho, I still couldn¢t manage to stay dry. I just sweat too much when I¢m doing a long, steady climb. The poncho provides a lot of circulation underneath, but when the air is so humid I just don¢t dry. The rain was chilly, so I stayed warm, and my pack stayed dry so that¢s good news.As soon as I got to the car and stopped hiking, I started to get cold. The temp had only gone up a degree to two. By the time I picked her up and got back to Cantarroso, I was ready for a hot shower. After cleanup we headed into Erwin and had some good BBQ at Hawg ¢n Dawg, and we stopped just down the street at Steel Rails for a hot latte. Life is good. Back at the Cantarroso I crashed and slept for a couple of hours, it was great to be clean, warm, dry and prone. During the course of the day, several other hikers came in: Fancy Pants and Cheap ¢n Easy. We met them several days ago at the Creekside Courts in Hot Springs. At that point they were Matt and Nick, but they got trail names today. Later we all went out to the Primo, an Italian restaurant a couple of miles away and Peggy and Mike joined us. We¢re still trying to talk Peggy into joining us at some point along the trail this year. At one point she thought she could do the JMT, but she had a conflict, then she wanted to hike Maine with us, but Mike reminded her of another conflict. So now, she may do some parts of Virginia or the Smokies when we come back later this fall. Eventually I¢m sure we¢ll find a way to hook up. So we have one more day here, tomorrow we¢re doing the NoBo section into Erwin. We¢ll stay here tomorrow night and then head back to Norfolk on Thursday. We thought we might be able to do a short section Thursday morning, but we¢re still too far from Norfolk to make that work and I have an appointment Friday AM.