Date: 2005-03-14
From: Justis Creek 

To: Granny Top Mountain
Miles today: 8.4

3/14/05 Day 3I awoke at 5am because for several hours I had been needing to get up to relieve myself. I was cold, so inside the crowded tent I put on all the warm clothes I had plus my rain gear because it had been raining throughout the night. I hate to admit it but this was the first time I had had to relieve myself since the previous morning at the shelter at Hawk Mountain. I did let myself get dehydrated. Even the wind can dehydrate someone and there was plenty of that yesterday. For breakfast we had a bagel and cheese again since it had been raining and we were anxious to try to make Woodshole Shelter which was where we wanted to be at the end of today. We missed where we wanted to be last night (Gooch Gap Shelter) by 1.3 miles. As we were packing up I was getting the food bag down from the tree (hung to keep the bears from it) and I got the rope stuck on a branch. I went to get a hiking pole to get it loose and only saw Mike's poles. Mine were missing. I knew that I must have forgotten to pick them up with my pack when we changed campsites. We went to were I had left them--GONE! We saw a hiker packing up his tent and asked him if he had by chance seen them or heard of anyone finding them. He hadn't. So I took out my little notepad and a safety pin and put a note saying I had left them to the west of the trail at that point and described them down to one having a supply of duct tape on one. I was hoping that I would have good luck that other hikers I had read about had had, and that someone would pick them up and try to find out as they went along their way who had lost them. We stopped at Gooch Gap Shelter and read the register but none had written anything about finding any poles. Jackie and David (from S.Wales) were the last to leave the shelter and we told them about the poles and left a note in the shelter register. As we're leaving the shelter, Mother Goose, (trail name of Susan from Texas), was walking into the shelter. She had camped at the same creek as us but had not heard of anyone finding any poles. Anyway, later today we were resting at the top of a steep climb and were about ready to leave when this hiker came bounding over the up from the direction we had just come and said, "I think I have something that belongs to you." I looked at his pack and there was a pair of hiking poles sticking out of the top. Mike said he thought I was going to kiss him. He had talked to MG and she told him what I looked like. WOW!Trail magic is a word you hear often in association with long distance hiking. It is described as anything that someone does for you to make your hike a more pleasant experience and it can range from someone handing out cold drinks, fruit, sandwiches, or anything like that to giving a ride or shuttle into a town to pick up a mail drop, or for a stay at a hostel or motel or a ride from there back to the trail head. Our first trail magic happened at Gooch Gap where the AT crosses a Forest Service Road where Skip was getting ready to hike into Gooch Gap Shelter with cold drinks for the hikers hiking into there that day. His son had started the trail and was due to hike into there that afternoon. When we met and exchanged names he said he had seen our name on the TJ site and then saw where we had signed the quest register @ The Hiker Hostel. He told us he had signed our guest book afterthat. Getting back my poles was the second magic we experienced. Thanks to David Dubuois (of the woods) for making sure I got them. Before that Mike was sharing one of his poles with me. Our tent held up great in the rain. No leaks!! Thanks to Mike's super sealing job. The vestibule covers both packs and our boots. When it was raining last night we could not hear the quickly bubbling stream, but without the rain the stream was loudly bubbling. I think I prefer the sound of a softer trickle. I felt like the water was coming up to get us.Most of the day today was hiking in the fog. Not a lot of views until the later afternoon but it was still beautiful. The forest looked enchanted or mystical with the bare trees silhouetted (sp) in the fog. The view from Big Cedar Mountain was fantastic. Only on this trail would we be able to see so many views. How lucky we are.We were unable to make it to the shelter. It was getting late and we were on top of a mountain and wanted to get off it to lower altitude and hopefully warmer air but had to settle for a high spot with 360* views. We watched the sun set as we set up the tent and then crawled into our sleeping bags immediately. It was cold!! We had cooked our supper at Woody Gap earlier in the day so did not have to bother with that.