Date: 2004-05-24
From: Apple House Shelter

To: Catawampas
Miles today: 24.0

On the morning of May 24 the other guy (and I don¢t remember his name) got up early and just left without breakfast. It turns out that he was heading into town and the road was only a half mile away. This was another gray morning. The trail followed an old woods road most of the way out to the highway, US19E. There were signs warning of vandalism and car break-ins at the trail head paring lot. That was kind of sad.There were drink bottles discarded on the side of the trail as it climbed away from the road. Shortly the trail crossed a small road and made its way down to cross a bridge over Bear Branch. Looking back across the little ravine as the trail slabbed up, I was startled by the trash strewn from the roadway down to the brook. It looked like someone had just dumped truck loads of trash off the side of the road. It was heart breaking. This would be a huge and difficult clean up. The trash had been there for a while. It was house hold trash. All kinds of things could be made out, like dish soap bottles, furniture, boxes, etc. This put me in a sad angry mood for much of the day. I¢m sure the local trail community isn¢t happy either. Perhaps it is private property.The rest of the day was actually quite nice. There were nice views in spite of the cloudy skies. The trail also passed by some nice waterfalls. Water falls have really been fairly scarce on the trail along with swimming holes. That was depressing but Jones Falls really made me happy.There was also a different kind of bridge being used around here. These bridges were made of a bunch of 2x6s on edge sandwiched together with short chunks as spacers. The top was covered with an expanded wire mesh which made for great tractions. It looks like a good design.And then there were the flowers. It was nice to see some lady slippers. There should be plenty back home too.Moreland Gap Shelter was 18 miles into the day. This could be a good place to stop. After all, it was 5pm. The next shelter was 8 miles north. That would make for a long 26 mile day but there was a hostel only 6.1 miles away. That could work but I didn't really need civilization right now. The food supply was fine. At least there were options. Apparently, the decision to move on came while concluding my entry in the shelter register. That entry pretty much shows how these things come about. Notice too that it is signed "Quicksilver". Just trying it out.The day was getting old as the trail approached Denis Cove Road. Kincora Hiker¢s Hostel would be a short two tenths of a mile to the left. The trail had been descending at a pretty good clip for the last mile and a half from 4,000 feet to 2,500 feet. It was just about to flatten out and leave the open conifer forest for a dense deciduous one when a little hunk of corrugated cardboard tacked to a tree in the trail caught my eye. The hand written sign read, "Catawampas Shelter, comfortable, primitive, backwoods, hiker lodging, small donation appreciated". This place was not mentioned in the book but sounded like it was right up my alley. There was plenty of food in my pack and no need to go into town.The sign said Catawampas was just 10 minutes away but it didn¢t mention it was up hill all the way. It wouldn¢t have been so bad but this was the end of the 24th mile of the day. In all honesty it only took me 7 minutes but that involved breaking a sweat. The place was amazingly cool. No one was there but someone had put tons of work into this place. The bunkhouse was the first structure to be sighted. It was made of rough cut planks with diamond shaped windows. Inside there was a wood stove, some simple chairs, a bed room with a double bed and a bunk area with 4 bunks, several pegs in the wall and a long bench. There were also a couple of kerosene lanterns and a wood stove. The whole place was very homey. I was ecstatic.Outside there was a nice picnic table. Further on there was a fire ring with all kinds of benches and logs around it. To the left of that was a beautiful little log cabin. This had to be the owners place.Beyond the cabin was the spring and shower. Yep, a hot shower was available if you wanted to build a fire under the water tank. There was a pipe that came snaking out of the woods and emptied into a water bucket with a big ladle hanging beside it. Another pipe ran down hill to a big tank perched above a fire pit. From there another pipe ran further down hill to a little wood plank shower stall. This was an amazing feat of wilderness ingenuity. It was too late and too lazy to build a fire for a shower but what a concept.It was dark by the time dinner was finished, surprise, surprise. Back in the bunk house I sat reading and writing by the light of a kerosene lantern. Strangely, these were probably the most comfortable bunks I¢ve ever slept on. They had vinyl covered foam mattresses but they were only about two inches thick. Most bunk mattresses are about 4 inches thick and I hate them. I wind up throwing them on another bunk or the floor and using my Thermarest. Perhaps it was their thinness or perhaps their newness but these were great mattresses.This would be a great nights sleep after a fine 24 mile day.