Date: 2007-04-10
From: Nolichucky River

To: Spivey Gap
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: clear sky

Tuesday, April 10, 2007Nolichucky River to Spivey Gap, 11.2 milesLast night we decided to postpone the Roan hike. First hike for 2-4 days out of Erwin, hiking Roan later in the week when it¢s not raining.We¢ve checked into the Super 8 in Erwin.At breakfast we meet NOBO Cheerios and her Mom, Mountain Mama, from Atlanta. Also NOBO¢s Cedar and Flower Lady (she owns a flower business) from Dexter Maine.We talk about the frigid weather. They say a lot of hikers are holed up in town, many at Miss Janet¢s, because people aren¢t attempting Roan yet. Flower Lady says when people from other parts of the country say to her and Cedar, ¢Oh, you¢re from Maine, you should be used to single digit temps.¢ she responds, ¢Here¢s what we do in Maine when it¢s 8 degrees out, we stay inside and turn up the thermostat.¢Cedar has lost 55 pounds so far on this hike, Flower Lady¢s lost some too but is afraid to step on a scale because she can¢t afford to lose any weight.On 19W we look around a bit for the Spivey Gap trailhead. Find it. Then I drive back to the Nolichucky River. Go past a mailbox that is lettered Ernest and Maxine. I love old-fashioned names like Ernest and Maxine. Start 9:50.Hello to NOBO Billy the Kid, hiking from Sam¢s Gap, after an Easter break at Miss Janet¢s. Billy reports below zero temps and knee-deep snow. He says Miss Janet took in a ton of people and she fed 100 people an Easter dinner. She just dropped him back on the AT at Sam¢s Gap right where she picked him up. Billy started hiking the AT March 12. Billy wants to see the East and figured this was the best way to see it. This climb out of Nolichucky is the first time my 2007-AT legs feel muscled and strong. That feeling you get when you get your trail legs back. When they keep moving and don¢t complain. I love that feeling and I¢ll have it all day today. The day is clear and crisp. Sun-bathed views to my right, smoky blue views to my left. At this lower elevation, there¢s no snow.Hello to NOBO Ghengis Khan. He thinks Billy may rent a car and drive to Chicago to collect his dog to hike with him. Ghengis also had Easter dinner with Miss Janet¢s.Rapping a hollow tree, a woodpecker is making different bongo-drum tones (not tapping sounds) every time he/she moves a different part of the tree. I record this percussion on my small tape recorder.Lots of train whistles. Remember hiking Indian Grave Gap to Nolichucky in 2005 when I waited between 30-45 minutes for a stopped train. Finally I crawled over the coupling between 2 cars. Five minutes later it started up.Hello to NOBO Rockhound.Hello to NOBO Owl, from Charleston SC, a chemistry major who focusing right now on hiking the AT. When that¢s done he¢ll think about graduate school. On day 2 of his thruhike, he fell in love with hiking. Owl and I spend maybe 10 minutes talking, me doing most of it. Owl is a natural listener. He¢s got his own blog, but is thinking of switching over to trailjournals.Climb out of Chestoa has been great. Today I feel really good, the day is perfect, I¢m playing in the woods. No worries.11:45 lunch. Roast beef sandwich made with butter, a square of dark chocolate and a pint of cranberry pomegranate juice/gingerale.AT veers off to the left of the last up. I¢m done with the big climb. Wind stirs up some of the dry leaves on the ground, which stirs up a memory. Catching wind-stirred leaves counts in the Leaf-Catching Game.Here's another interesting item on the subject of the Leaf-Catching Game: on November 21, 2005, the Commissioner of Leaf-Catching left the following message in my guestbook:¢Hey Early Bird, What are you doing over here signing Amoeba's journal?? Didn't you read what she wrote about catching leaves?? She made up her own rules!!! You need to go over and read my journal so you know the proper way to play that game. Ha!!¢   After a comment like that imagine my surprise learning that from April 1 2007 until September, while the Commissioner is pedalling across the country and back, I¢ve been designated Acting Commissioner!Who was it up in Maine last year who said he thought the climb up Roan Mountain was the hardest on the whole AT except for Katahdin? That remark and our own good sense has Memere, Gray Feathers and I deciding to postpone the Roan hike until the ice and snow has melted and conditions are safer for porous old bones.   We want to make it safely the whole way to Hot Springs, Max Patch or Davenport Gap, whichever turns out to be the terminus of this spring¢s hike.Trail here is like walking on a wide shelf. Sweet. A few wisps of snow lying loosely on top of dry leaves.12:15 a tee. Where is the trail? To the left.Hello to NOBO Walking Cowboy, started March 14. He was picked up at Sam¢s Gap for Easter Dinner. He had 3 great meals, free.Oh! The 6-spotted tiger beetle, the exact color of our 1978 Toyota Corolla. First one I¢ve seen this year. That beetle and the spring azure butterfly are 2 of my favorite early spring trail companions.I keep looking for bears, but haven¢t seen any. They've seen me, I'm sure.Toe stub, start to fall, but a great running catch, stay upright.Woods are really dry, rain is needed so even though it would be nice to have another day like today, for the next 3 we can put up with some rain and some showers. Attempt Roan on Saturday.1PM I take my first really hard fall, on absolutely nothing. I step wrong with the foot that had the broken ankle. Go down on the outside of my right knee and shin and catch myself with my hands. I sort of have the wind knocked out of me. I'm OK.Meet 3 sisters out hiking, Shirley, Louise and Helen. They¢ve done most of the AT between Roan and Springer. They¢re not hiking Roan today for the same reasons we aren¢t. The 3 sisters say the shelter is not very far and Memere and Gray Feathers are there now. Maybe I¢ll get to share the shelter with them for a little bit.1:15 meet Memere and Gray Feathers. They have just had a nice conversation with the 3 sisters. The sisters have done all 900 miles of the Smokies together. Wait a minute. That rings a bell. I met them in May 2005 hiking southbound into Hot Springs, they were sitting by the trail dangling their legs sharing a bag of fried pork rinds! Helen drives the tour trolley in Gaitlinburg, we¢ll have to look her up next year when we¢re doing the Smokies. They have blue tee shirts that say Great Smokey Mountains, Sunshine Hikers, God is Love. They¢re going to keep hiking the AT as far as they can get. They can only hike on Helen¢s days off because of her job. I spend a long time at the shelter reading the register which goes back to March 2006:5-2-2006 Jellybean proceeding on GAME 20065-2-2006 Here for night. Hey Harley get your bike a-movin. You too, Weekes, Mulligan.5-9-2006 Sunday was cold. Rainy crappy day. Got a ride to Johnny¢s Hostel and took a zero slackpacking back to Johnny¢s for what I missed on Sunday. Johnny¢s is a fantastic hostel. Great prices. They really treat you well. Jersey Guy.4-2-2007 I¢ve decided I¢ve got a new goal in life. When I get too old to hike I¢m gonna join all those gray-haired guys you see in Hardees every morning drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. When lunch time rolls around we¢ll move to the Food Court in the mall. Leonard Adkins, the Habitual Hiker. Tomorrow I¢ll be in Erwin, the town that hung an elephant. P.S. Wonder how many more shelters will have Hercules and Falls books left in them. Yes, it¢s done.4-2-2007 Erwin is trying to downplay this history. It¢s no longer written in the books but it did happen. Of course the elephant had killed several people so it wasn¢t an innocent elephant. Laurie N Adkins, The Unbrella Lady.GAME ¢07 Don¢t touch my food. And McAfee of Knob, who is much quieter than a shelter mouse.4-10-2007 I am not slackpacking but I have nearly no food so it¢s like slacking. I wake up with the shelter to myself thinking about making tea and doing some yoga. Owl.***4-10-2007 Hi Amoeba. Se we really can sign the register. Arrived at noon in time for lunch and a nice visit with the 3 sisters. Now movin on. Easy going the rest of the way. Enjoy. Memere and Gray Feathers.***I met the Umbrella Lady and McAfee of Knob in 2004, hiking north of the James River, I think. She said to look her up when I got to the Roanoke area. I didn¢t get there that year, so I never did. I hadn¢t realized she was married to Leonard, the author of the AT Wildflower book.Owl asked me about my family, and yes, I have family who I dearly love, but the AT family is becoming my family too. All the repeat contacts and bonds and connections. On just this 2-week old hike, I¢ve met about 6 people I already know from past years.A little bit of an eroded section on the hillside.Hello to NOBO¢s Tattoo, Drip Dry and their dog, Boris, finishing mile 44 of their 50-mile nonstop hiking marathon into Erwin!!! They¢ve been hiking continuously since 11AM yesterday!!!Hello to Magellan, she thinks she may get into Erwin about 11AM tomorrow. Maybe we can help her with slacking, since we have cars and that¢s what we¢re doing. She¢s hiked all over the world. Her son is a mountain guide.I give her the weather forecast, according to the Weather Channel.   90% chance of rain tomorrow, 20% each of next 3 days.I am having another great day playing in the woods.Hello to NOBO Loner Bohner from the Indianapolis Hiking Club, started at Springer Feb 28.Hello to Marshall and Maryarden from DC. Maryarden says when she started she wondered if she¢d ever get through the pain. She did. They suggest I look up Signage¢s journal. She has a composer and works on her journal every night. They know Magellan and Loner Bohner. They say Magellan has hiked the ECT. I should have asked them, what¢s that? Gotta look that one up.3:50 fire circle and campsite.There was a fire here, don¢t know if controlled or not. Looks like new trail.On the descent to Spivey Gap, I meet NOBO Mr Easy. Hello to NOBO Joseph Stalin from outside of Albany NY. He¢ll be going to college in Maine. His trail name like mine is an example of names with dark sides.Hello to NOBO Stubble.Out 5PM, thinking of the great hike I had over this same piece in 2005, with Swingin¢ Jane and Simon the Wonder Dog. That day, when we went into the No Business shelter, there was an unopened half pint of Jack Daniels with a note that said ¢Welcome to Tennessee.¢We have dinner at Rivers Edge with NOBO Stubble, his wife Diane, his mother-in-law Del (Carmela) and sister-in-law Mary Ann, Dorothy, Toto, Memere and Gray Feathers. Good BBQ.Earlier in the day, I¢d read the shelter register entry by Leonard Adkins about the Erwin elephant hanging. Rivers Edge Restaurant carries this story on the back of its menu. It says: "The town of Erwin is the only known town in history to have hung an elephant and her name was Mary. in 1916 the Sparks Brothers Circus came to Kingsport Tennessee and during a performance on September 11, Mary went mad and crushed circus employee Red Eldridge. The 30-year-old 5-ton elephant, valued at the time at $8000, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. On September 13, Murderous Mary, who was said to have killed 7 other employees before Eldridge, was hung in front of a crowd estimated at 2500 people in the Clinchfield Railroad Yards. Full story www.blueridgecountry.com/elephant/elephant"