Date: 2003-05-07
From: Brown Gap

To: Hot Springs, NC
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Erin says...Yeah, I just hiked 23.3 miles in exactly 12 hours. What were we thinking?Wow, it feels really good to be able to say we accomplished that feat, our first 20+ mile day in our journey, just a month and a day into our hike! Wow, do my feet hurt! You see, we not only hiked 23.3 miles (just a few miles shy of a marathon) but we did it in sopping wet socks and shoes and very heavy packs weighed down by the wetness of the rain over the past few days. So, the day began in pouring rain. We tented just beyond the road at Brown Gap, on an old logging road that had a flat spot. We had woken to thunder and lighning at about 3:30am. We could see the cracks of lighning from the little window in our tent. Scary stuff because the thunder was right on top of the lightning. I was worried about falling trees or limbs since that is what we've been seeing and hearing about from other hikers. Craig was worried that the logging road would quickly turn into a river with all the water. But we managed to stay mostly dry in the tent and even got back to sleep. It was still pouring when we woke up at about 9am, so we stayed in the tent and read from the book we are sharing. (A Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger - hah!) The rain stopped around 10am and we slowly made our way out of the tent... to quickly learn that the rain on the dirt path had created quite a muddy mess of our tent, shoes (even though they were under the vestibule), pack covers, etc. A really yucky muddy mess. We used water from the 6L bladder to wash off what we could, and began the process of packing up camp and leaving. We put on our "dry" socks, but they became sodden as soon as the shoes went on. I left out ahead of Craig to get my head start. (11:30am) The morning included a long climb up to Max Patch. Max Patch is an amazing bald - the top is just acres of rolling green hill. What a great reward (hopefully photo to come soon!). I waited for Craig on top of Max Patch, but he did not show. I chilled with FatNut and Spoon, a funny and really nice British fellow that we had started hiking with at Springer and finally ran into again. I had to get off Max Patch because we could see the ominous dark thunder clouds advancing toward us. So I booked it down and the next 5 miles were fun to hike in the rain - just sort of rolling along with no real uphills or downhills. It was warm enough to hike in just my shirt and shorts even though the raindrops came down fast and furious. Everything along the trail is very green. There were many stream crossings, that normally would not be hard, but all the rain from this storm system has made it more difficult. Since my shoes were soggy anyway, I just walked right through most of the streams.I arrived at Roaring Fork Shelter around 3:30pm and Craig arrived soon after. We squeezed the dirty water out of our socks and made an early dinner of chicken lipton noodles with an added can of chicken. And garlic pepper hot sauce. FatNut showed up and they were talking about doing a long mileage day to get to the last shelter before Hot Springs, N.C. I was feeling really good after only 8.5 miles. Craig and I decided to hike on and just see how far we could get.We hiked up 2 more big hills, but it was great hiking later in the day - cooler and breezy. We got to Garenflo Gap as it was starting to get dark. We'd already hiked 16.8 miles! Easily our longest day (13.5 previously) We strapped on our headlamps and decided to try to hike the the last shelter and pull a 20-mile day. Thankfully the rain had let up. It was weird to night hike - I hadn't done that since Craig and I came down Mt. Washington last summer. It is hard to adjust to the trail with only a small patch of light. Plus with all the wet and mud it became a little more hazardous and slippery. However, with night hiking, one tends to go a little faster because your concentration is primarily on the trail and getting into a zone. We hiked 3.4 miles in 1 hour/17 minutes! Pretty good! We got to the last shelter and we were both hurting in the feet department. I'd developed another side-heel blister from the wet, salty socks constantly rubbing against my feet. All the skin on the bottom of Craig's feet and backs of his heels/Achilles was literally rubbing off from being constantly wet. We sat outside the last shelter in the dark and decided we wanted real sleep in a real bed. We'd come this far in the dark - why not do the last 3.2 miles and get to town? It was only 10:30pm.... the wheels in my head started to turn and I got stuck on the idea of pressing on and making it to the Paddler's Pub in Hot Springs in time for last call. How sweet would it be to top off this huge hiking day with a local brew? So we downed some Advil, heaved our very heavy packs back on and made a quick trek to town in the dark. The funniest part of all this night hiking was Craig singing loudly to thwart off any critters that might be lurking along the trail. Oh the songs I had to put up with... numerous Van Halen arrangement, muzak from his Indian Head days, etc. It was pretty funny. Thankfully he could do most of the singing because I had to concentrate on just breathing to make it up the last hills. We also made up a story about life in the South. Craig would start and run with it, then pass the story off to me to continue with. We went back and forth and it helped pass the time. Some of the characters were 'Fat Mamma Frank', Little Booger, and Moonshine Sammy. We were both getting very tired! Your neck and back muscles get strained from following the light from the headlamp on the trail.Finally the lights of Hot Springs appeared and we began to descend upon the town. We got out of the woods at 11:30pm and followed the white blazes along the road to get to the main street section. This is the first real town we've been to where the trail goes right through the center! The town was pretty much totally dark and shut down. No mini-mart open, no late-night fast food joint.... Turns out Paddler's Pub closed at 11:30pm. I was pretty saddened, very tired, and starting to get cranky. Turns out Hot Springs is pretty tiny and nothing was open. We found the Alpine Court Motel along the 1/2 mile main street strip and luckily the owner hadn't quite gone to bed yet. He told us to go to room 8, that the key was in the door, and not to worry about payment until morning because we looked so ragged. We got into the room and discovered that the TV/cable was out because of the recent storms. No phone in the room either. And major ant issues in the bathroom. Was it worth it to bust ass to get here? Well, yes. A few doors down some other hikers were staying - they were sitting outside the room in chairs. They called us over, listened to our tale of the long day, and gave us beers! Yeah! Moments after settling in, dropping our packs, peeling off our socks, and having a few sips of beer - we realized we were pretty psyched about our big day. The beer made our feet feel instantly better. Plus we knew we didn't have to sleep in our wet, muddy tent tonight. We get to go to bed on soft mattresses with pillows and blankets. I can't wait. And we get tomorrow to rest up. I am ravenously hungry. Craig went to use the shower and came out to find me mowing on the last of our triscuits and summer sausage. I can't remember the last time I was this hungry! We will have to wait until morning to get real food. The bed is calling me.....