Date: 2016-06-26
From: Hot Springs, NC

To: Spring Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: few clouds

6/26Headed out of Hot Springs this morning headed for Little Laurel shelter but this would turn into my most eventful day on the trail and we would end up spending the night at a site just past Spring Mountain Shelter. the fire scout master built last night is still very hot despite me pouring 2 gallons of water on it before I went to bed last night. Half an hour after I dumped the water the fire flared right back up again. Curly Q dropped off his pack last night and then disappeared back into town, there is no sign of him or Tats this morning so we hide it and Finder is going to tell them where to find it when he goes into town for his package.Me and Srgnt Pepper set out hiking together at the Lovers Leap we stopped to soak in the view of Hot Springs, and brush our teeth. Srgnt Pepper set his pack right near the edge of the cliff and I immediately commented that it was a brave place to put it, about 30 seconds later the open pack was at the bottom of a 40' cliff with a debris field of gear trailing behind it. If you can't laugh in that moment you won't survive the AT, and we definitely laughed for a while. Finally we made or way down the trail and scrambled over a rock field to retrieve items. The pack was more difficult to retrieve having to scramble around some trees and further down the slope but I was able to get down there with some para cord and work the pack up to slope while Sam pulled pulled and scrambled from above. At together we lost about 30-45 minutes and most of the items were recovered undamaged. We continued on and got to the top of the initial climb right around mid day after which it levels out a bit and there is a dammed creek that makes for a smelly pond. As me and Srgnt. Pepper skirted the pond I suddenly stopped in my tracks almost stepping on a massive rat snake in the long grass resulting in several expletives of surprise. As we kept climbing we moved through pockets of freshly charred forest from fires earlier this year. It was clear that many of these sections of trail had been completely rebuilt since the fire, incredible work by local trail crews thanks to all who are involved in maintaining the AT. At a side trail to the Rich Mountain Observation Tower we found a note Scout Master and Yukon saying the Village was lunching in the tower, part way up we found Dex and Dez headed back down. At the top we found the tower and a gravel road with some sight seers up parked up there. Srgnt Pepper and I headed up into a rickety looking watch tower with holes in the floor the size soccer balls. The view from the top was incredible and we found Scout Master and Yukon were sprawled out on the floor eating. Including a pie Scout Master had carried up there, Srgnt Pepper and I joined them it was a pretty hot day especially when we were hiking through the burned out section without any tree cover.We hoped that Tats and Curly Q would catch up with us but after about an hour we all moved on. Now out of the burn zone we moved through green forests. I was in the lead with Srgnt Pepper about 10-15 seconds behind me on the trail as we came over a small rise we both commented on a nice campsite off to the right. Suddenly there was a loud crack and I spun around to see what happened but Srgnt Pepper just shrugged, immediately followed by half a tree crashing to the ground right between us. Scout Master and Yukon yelled from behind to find out what happened. We soon got to Spring Mountain shelter and stopped to rest and talk with Dex and Dez we were also joined by Teddy a section hiker from Florida. Dex and Dez moved on while the four of us decided to stay and cook food, possibly for the night. Scout Master pulled out a cantaloupe that he cut up with his machete and passed around. We also cooked several courses of food as a group resulting in an awesome potluck. We were soon joined by Teddy's friend Kate and Otter. The shelter is definitely old and run down and the privey leaves quite a bit to be desired nearly overflowing and a stall to small close the door. So we all decided to stay at some one of the campsites near the shelter. Scout Master of course built a big fire and we were joined by the other people we had meet as well as mayhem and a SOBO. The SOBO warned us that a lot of the water sources ahead are dried up. Curly Q and Tats never showed up but late in the day a rare moment of LTE resulted in a small group of photo messages from Curly Q showing a truck in a ditch with Cherish in the backseat. No explanation or location was provided.Scout Master is now Scout Master Norris as in Chuck Norris just due to his general badassness.