Date: 2005-04-07
From: Dick's Creek Gap

To: Plum Orchard
Miles today: 6.0

At about 3:30 in the morning I was awakened by the sound of rain, it rained pretty heavily and the wind was pretty viscious. I stayed dry in the tent. I was surprised that no water came in and the tent stayed up, considering the wind.I had a pretty hard time going back to sleep, I stayed awake until about 4:30.   I had to put my earplugs in to sleep because of the wind and the rain slamming into the tent.I slept in pretty late, I didn't get up until about 7:50. I packed up my stuff pretty quickly, in a break between the rain, I managed to get my tent down dry. I packed up my backpack and everything.Just about the time I did that, the bell rang. Gary rings a bell for breakfast. About 10 of us sat down for a great breakfast fixed by Lennie. We sat in a back room with a long table.They actually stood around the table and served us the whole time.The menu was more than excellent. I had pancakes and homemade blueberry syrup, coffee, orange juice, sausage patties, scrambled eggs and really good cheese biscuits.I decided yesterday, that since I was doing pretty well, to go ahead and hike out this morning at 9:30 and get more miles in today. I was going to try to make it to the second shelter.   The first one is only 4 miles up the Trail, Plum Orchard Gap. The next one is actually in North Carolina. But, sitting down and looking at the elevation map, I realized thatI would not be on the Trail until 10 o'clock, and I would be making the first shelter way too early to stay. Then I'd have to just hang out for the rest of the day.The next shelter is over 11 miles through one of the nastiest parts of the Trail which is Bly Gap at the North Carolina/Georgia border.I pretty well decided to avoid doing hard climbs at the end of the day. It's just not worth the risk of getting hurt and the extra pain.So, I came up with the perfect plan of coming into town here, going to the library, sending in my journals, and doing a little shopping. I'm down to six Jewel Sweet Cigars. The next time I'll be in a town will be 5 days. I managed to lose my visor so I have to stop at the Salvation Army to get a new one. Maybe I'll get back to the Trail and start hiking by 1 o'clock or so, that would work out perfectly. I'll hit Plum Orchard Shelter by 4 or 5 o'clock. Rest up, and take the big climb into North Carolina early in the morning tomorrow.   I don't know what it is, I keep wanting to push and keep forcing myself not to.I realize that I'm not going to make it into Fontana Dam according to my schedule for the 14th. That's going to screw up my plans for Eddie to hike The Smokies with me.   I don't know if that's going to work out yet or not. If it does, it means I have to run in and out of Nantahala Outdoors Center and do 15-16 mile days from now until the 14th. I don't think I'm capable of it without doing damage to myself.I'm going to go with the flow. Stay in town here, enjoy it a little for the day, check my e-mails take a leisurely hike this afternoon up into the shelter.If I'm lucky the rain will stop.Only can hope...After I left Bottle Rocket at the Library this afternoon, I went over to the VFW. I replaced my visor which somehow disappeared from the Blueberry Patch. I swear the cats must have walked away with it. I found an appropriate white one. The lady told me it was .50 cents, but I told her I would pay $1 for it.I walked across the street to Rite Aid and stocked up for the Trail. I got some candy bars and another 20 Jewel Sweet cigars. I bought a bottle of orange juice and gulped it down. I got some triple A's. I'm probably not going to need them, but I dont have any in this bump box, so I went ahead and got those.I went from there, down the street to the Dairy Queen, it was about 11:45 anyway, so I sat down and ordered and Ultimate Hamburger Combo. A double combo with fries and a Coke. I sat across from there 2 little girls, one of whom was still on Spring Break, they were with their father and grandfather. The grandfather asked me a whole bunch of questions about the Trail. We sat there and talked about it for awhile.We talked about the town and how fast it's growning and the fact that it was dirt poor until people from Florida started moving into it. Now construction is the big thing here.I got my fill, I couldn't eat all my frech fries, I gave them to the little girls.I got on the road and started hitching. I had to walk about another half mile, which, by the way, is a pet peeve of mine, all those extra miles that don't count. It's just complaining, but, if I didn't have something to bitch about, it would all be too good. So I've decided that my pet peeve will be extra miles and I am keeping track of them off to the side. With that half mile and the 2 miles I had to walk to Blueberry Patch yesterday and the quarter mile I had to walk into and out of the shelter I'm at now puts me at 5.6 miles extra in the first 70 miles. That's alot. This lady in a neck brace pulled over and picked me up. Her name was Jackie, she was a really nice lady. It took about 12-15 minutes to drive to the Trail so we sat and talked. She had just gotten out of the hospital after surgery. She asked me if I smoked and I thought that maybe I smelled like smoke, but she said no. She wanted to have a cigarette and asked me if I wanted one too. She said she had quit smoking, but she just bought a pack. I convinced her to throw the pack out the window. We talked about different ways to quit smoking since I had tried so many different ways to quit. I told her about Bextra and she's going to ask her doctor about it.On the way to the Trail, I was looking up at the mountains, the ridge that we were driving by. It was still raining and the clouds had dropped down and covered the tops of the mountains. I knew that I was going to be walking in those clouds pretty soon. It worked out just right, I got back on the Trail at 12:45 and the hard rain had stopped, just little drizzles. The wettest I got was from the wind blowing water down off the pine trees. It was actually pleasant. It kept me cool. I was walking through the clouds for the most part, which is the equivalent of walking through rain suspended in air. I got pretty damp.I walked really slow deliberately. I figured it was only 1 o'clock and I only have 4 miles to get to the shelter. The shelter is 1300 feet up the mountain. I took my time and stretched my legs completely on every step going uphill to fully work out the muscles. And on the downhills I would hold my full weight as far as I could and walk in slow motion to use the resistance to keep toning the muscles for the downhills. An incredibly easy hike, considering it was 1300 feet. I was talking to the other people and they couldn't believe it was 1300 feet either. I guess they were feeling good coming out of town.When I got to the shelter, there were a couple of people here from last night. Saxy Lady, Mr. Fusion and Kelly with his guitar, and a couple I met a few days ago. He had never been in the woods, never hiked. It was his forst time doing anything outdoors this way. I had actually I met him at a water source, he had a water filter and didn't know how to use it. I had to show him how to use it.That was us for a while. Suddenly, these two guys come walking in. One of them was carrying a flourescent pink office chair! He walked in and said to me " I know you! You're SWIFT!" Sure enough it was Rocky, who I had met in Virginia two years ago. He had found this bright pink office chair on the road and carried it up the mountain as a practical joke. He felt he may need someplace to sit in the shelter. He and his buddy, who's name is Chris, brought up a 12 pack of beer, a box full of chocolates and a pack of Oreo cookies to share with everyone. So we sat around and ate all that stuff. We had a pretty good time.I'm at Plum Orchard Shelter right now. A little while ago, a young guy who I think is Chinese came in. He's very mild mannered and easy going. He's setting up right now. His name is Albert. It's just getting dark now.