Date: 2008-03-12
From: Cosby Knob Shelter NC

To: Groundhog Crk Shelter NC
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: clear sky

Day 24 ¢ Wednesday, March 12¢ Groundhog Crk Shelter NC ¢ Miles Today: 17.6 Total Miles: 245.5We had some excitement last night, as we were getting ready for bed. Brakeman was against the shelters stone wall. Grasshopper was the next one in, followed by a little gap, then Virginia Slim. Virginia Slim was angled toward us talking when all of a sudden his eyes got big as saucers and his speech sort of stopped. Grasshopper looked at him and said, "You just saw a mouse, didn't you?" and he said, "Yeah. It just climbed up the wall behind Brakeman.¢ He immediately starts repackaging the oatmeal under more layers of clothes that he has stashed in the hood of his sleeping bag. You're not supposed to have ANY food in the shelter and here he is sleeping with it! As we got settled in for the night, Grasshopper looks at the backpack between her and Virginia Slim and says "You don't have any food in that backpack, do you? Because if so, you need to move it to your other side. I'm not having any mice crawling around my area!" Virginia Slim was great ¢ he moved the backpack to his other side, so it was not near Grasshopper. Everyone is well aware of Grasshoppers dislike for mice!! But it is funny to see men being impacted by a little mouse too. Just like the girls!! Unfortunately, the critter stories continue, as Brakeman had a mouse encounter early in the morning. It was probably about 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. We were both lying there awake and all of a sudden a mouse goes "Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak" and then we hear a thud. A mouse had fallen off the rafters onto Brakeman's sleeping bag in the gut area. Brakeman flings his arms up to throw the mouse off him and that's the end of the mouse sighting. We haven't seen Virginia Slim today to ask him if he happened to have a flying mouse head his way this morning. If so, I'm thinking we better sleep lightly these next few nights. Revenge could be quite nasty. We seem to be the alarm clock for everybody in the shelter, as we get up earlier than all. We really like to hike early on the clear days and watch the sun come up. It was about 7:00 when we got up and about 7:30-7:45 when we hit the trail, as the sun came up and over the horizon. It was a little bit brisk in the morning as it normally is at the higher altitudes in the mountains. Today we had a killer day. We camped last night at 4700¢. Next we climbed to just over 5000'. Then we descended to 1400' and then hiked back to 4100' and then finally back to 2850¢. Quite a bit of elevation changes today. The big news today is that we left the Smoky Mountains National Park! Boy was there some hooting and hollering by all of us as we left that Park and the nasty 5000' and 6000' elevations, the snow, ice and horrible winds. It was amazing - as soon as we crossed the road into the next wilderness, there was a huge change in the trees as well as the trail. The trees were much, much smaller with lots of pine and lots of dead and fallen trees. We eventually did rise into a hardwood forest with rhododendrons but obviously a much younger forest than the Smokies. The terrain was unbelievable once we left the Smokies. We had clear footing the entire way. We called it the Smooth Trail, as there were not too many rocks and roots and you can actually get a good grip and keep up a good speed. Part of our trail today was an old logging road. It had a bit more of an incline to it than we're used to for logging roads, but considering that we did nearly 18 miles and our bodies are feeling good, I think we had some pretty good terrain. The other thing we tried today was to break the day into thirds. We hiked for 3 hours, took a break for food, hiked for about another 3 hours, took another break for food, and hiked another few hours into our campsite. We did huge miles today! We ended up going 17.6 official miles, 17.8 unofficial miles.   Long story short, we arrived at our campsite at 2:00pm after 13 miles and decided it was too early to stop. So the revised game plan was to head 3 more miles to another campsite. Unfortunately we never did find it, so we ended up hiking 5 more miles to Groundhog Creek Shelter. We spent most of the afternoon with Bare Fodder.   It was nice to have him the last couple miles on our heels so we could chatter back and forth, and pass those last few miles without thinking about the tired feet and the fact that they've gone so many miles today.   We arrived at Groundhog Creek Shelter at 5:30 and found a sleeping bag in the shelter with a backpack. There was a big blob of something, like a curled up body, in the sleeping bag, so we were quiet in case someone was sleeping. But eventually Bare Fodder hollered "Is anybody in there?" Nobody answered. Not sure where the hiker was. There was food on the table and we never like to see that. It attracts too many animals of all sizes. Within an hour the ¢missing¢ hiker came out of the woods. He was out playing with his dog in the creek. He attempted a thru-hike in 1996 making it to Damascus before bursitis set in his heels and forced him to stop. The hiker is a very free spirit type person. He attempted the AT; he does whitewater rafting guides and is now thinking about sailing around the world. Seems like quite an interesting guy. But he is running a bit short of funds. His whitewater rafting guide job does not begin for a few days, so lacking the funds to cover motel costs and not wanting to sleep in his car, he decided to hit the trail for a few days. He is actually finding a lot of his wardrobe and food along the trail - a pair of socks here, a shirt there, a bag of gorp hanging in a tree, etc. Bare Fodder spent quite a bit of time around the fire this evening chatting with him and gave him some money to tide him over, as well as some fatherly advice.We lost some of our hiking partners today. Yeti stopped at Standing Bear Hostel. He¢s also going stop at Hot Springs for 4 or 5 days to try to recover from a knee injury so we might not see him again. And we have not seen Virginia Slim today. We had told him that we were probably going just 13 miles to a campsite so perhaps he¢s at that campsite since he would have arrived later than us.   For the first time in a long, long time, we actually have our tent up and are enjoying some peace and solitude in it without the little critters running all around us or landing on Brakeman's stomach. Because of our unplanned extra miles today, we're a little bit off on our entry into Hot Springs. We have just 26 miles to Hot Springs and we have 2 1/4 days to cover it. Because of spacing of the shelters, it looks like we can do two 13-mile days and arrive early. So perhaps we'll have a nero and a zero in Hot Springs! We'll just have to play it by ear. It doesn't seem like anything we ever plan more than an hour in advance in the mountains ever stays to be true, so we'll have to see. Hopefully tomorrow will be another clear day. The last we heard the following day will be rain, so maybe arriving to Hot Springs a day early is a good thing. It's about 8:00 and it's above 50 degrees. We're going to call it a day from finally outside the Smoky Mountains. Good night.