Date: 2013-03-27
From: Sassafrass Gap Shelter

To: Brown Fork Gap Shelter
Miles today: 9.1
Weather: overcast clouds

I was one of the earlier departures on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, from the Sassafras Gap Shelter. Tenderfoot called out, ¢Werdigo! When are you leaving?,¢ wanting to stick together again, but I¢d already changed into my hiking clothes (that is, removed my polypro bottom and long-sleeved shirt, and my NorthFace wind shirt, and changed T-shirts) and he hadn¢t even disassembled his tent yet, so I said ¢Sorry, I¢m freezing, you¢ll catch me soon enough¢ and departed.        It was good not to have been the first to leave, though! Tallulah and Thunderfoot (a young man with a spectacular red beard and an occasional slight stutter), I think, were the first out, and had to ¢break trail.¢ This, not in the Yukon but on the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina in late March! Blown snow stuck to trees, obliterating the famous white blazes, and the fellows often had to guess, based on terrain and tree spacing, where the trail was. I reached Cheoah Bald, with a spectacular overlook, about 9:00 AM, and snapped a self-photo, but with my short tripod on the ground it shows none of the view. One hiker that day reported a drift up to his waist; Tenderfoot (who caught up to me shortly after 9 AM) and I found them up to our knees. We walked in a blustery cold wind, blowing across ridges, that almost blotted out our predecessors¢ tracks.        The trail, once it came down off the ridges, became icy and very slippery. We relied heavily on our poles, exercising special care when traversing rock slides, with jumbled angled rock faces and ankle-twisting gaps between them. Tenderfoot and I wondered how Brad could handle these sections, as he had no poles. (We also wondered at Condor¢s plan to make Brown Fork from the NOC in one day.)        Tenderfoot and I reached Simp Gap at 12:15 PM and stopped along the trail for lunch partway up out of the gap, from 12:25 to 12:55 PM. We descended, over a path that was often quite pleasant, to a large highway (Rt. 143) at Stecoah Gap. As Tenderfoot began to search for a water source, Brad came down the trail! On one of the rocky icy down steps that morning he had, indeed, taken a hard fall, and in the woods found a branch that made a large sturdy staff. He and I crossed the highway to begin the long ascent out of the Gap, leaving Tenderfoot searching for the water source mentioned in the trail guide. Tenderfoot had been trying to persuade me to bypass Brown Fork and camp along the trail, to reduce tomorrow¢s drop down into Fontana. He was quite strong in this view, but with two nights reserved at the Lodge I had no special need to get in early; we parted ways at Stecoah Gap.        That was a long, steep climb! But the path was smooth dirt, with no rock scrambling, and the east-facing hill caught the warm sun so we found almost no snow. Brad passed me almost as soon as we left the highway, at 2:00 PM, but I passed him as he worked on his pack shortly before the side trail to the Brown Fork Gap Shelter. Only Tallulah was there when I rolled in at 3:45 PM; the rest of his six-person group (Rooster, Novi, etc.) had gone ahead while he stayed to dry his clothes and gear in the hot sun. Brad never did show up; he camped farther along the trail. Tallulah and I, alone for a while, had a nice conversation and were able to reach our respective families by cell phone. The shelter gradually filled up, though, and we had a full night, plus a few tents (including Thunderfoot¢s). It seemed cold, but a little water left in my Platypus bag did not freeze.