Date: 2017-10-03
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Curley Maple Gap Shelter
Miles today: 21.9
Weather: few clouds

¢Hey, nice Dirty Girls!¢ You want to be a thru-hiker? Check out dirtygirlgaiters.com. Make sure you include the ¢gaiters¢ part, or you might be surprised at what comes up.Out here a thousand pebbles or bits of grit fight their way to get into your shoe. Who wants to spend the day stopping, leaning against a tree or sitting on a log, taking off your shoe, shaking it out, and then reversing the process. Wear gaiters instead. But not just any gaiters. You want the lightest. You want to pick your pattern from amongst 50 choices. Mine have usually lasted for 1500 miles. I had a ¢stars and stripes¢ pair and now mine are rainbow hippy peace symbol ones. The other four pairs belong to four spritely women who were out hiking a section of the trail and who really brightened up the day for Dot and me.But I should have lead off with some big thank-yous before I got side-tracked with the dirty girls. And by the way, the website is Princess-safe, though the patterns used to be heavy on skulls.(Frodo: I thought this story was going to transition into a confession. Scout texted me the day before I flew here, asking me to bring him his spare pair of gaiters; he¢d lost his. So I dutifully did so. It was not until I¢d been here for five days that he found his old ones, shoved in the bottom of one of his side pockets. Whoops.)I am so grateful that Blazer and Inyo came down to hike with us. Blazer came from Ketchikan, Alaska (look that up in your Rand McNally Atlas or, um, on Google Maps). And Inyo came from Washington, D.C. They flew in to Charlotte, NC, rented a car (a red Mustang convertible), drove over three hours, hiked in wine and Frodo birthday goodies. It meant so much to share this experience with them. After six miles this morning they hopped off the thru-hiker fast track and headed back to the airport. I hope tomorrow morning that the good memories far outweigh the day-after-the-hike aches and pains. Frodo looked forward to tending to her own body¢s aches when she got off after six miles, too. Her rental car was parked at the road crossing; the three got in and set off to where the Mustang was parked an hour¢s drive away. They also took most of our gear, so the four of us could slackpack for the next 11 miles. My long-suffering, dedicated Frodo (Frodo: I added the adjectives.) then met us so we could schlep our gear to the next shelter, four miles further (out of 22 for the day). I can¢t express how grateful I and the other three are for this. And tomorrow night we¢ll get to sleep in a bed together, freshly showered, Finally! After over three weeks apart and then three days together but sleeping in bags.I caught a good fall photo of Aloha in the ¢red tunnel¢ today.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...And here are two taken at tonight¢s home-away-from-home, the Curley Maple Gap Shelter. One is of a Franky-made fire with his latest culinary delight cooking on a rock next to it. It¢s spam and cheese over bean dip on an open-face bagel.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...It¢s so much milder tonight. Easily it is ten or more degrees warmer than it was at Overmountain Shelter two nights ago.I¢m looking forward to our next trail town, Erwin. Tomorrow makes seven straight hiking days and 140 miles. I will have earned my zero on Thursday.