Date: 2006-04-27
From: Uncle Johnny's Nolichucky Hostel

To: Cherry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: clear sky

We take bridges for granted, a lot of the time, muses Steech, as he crosses the third major river of his odyssey, the Nolichucky River, on a road bridge on his way out of Erwin. The water is brown and turgid, angry, swollen with recent rain, striking in its vicious rapidity. I would never in a million years figure out how to span that thing with concrete, if I was our pre-bridge-building forebears. I would just stay on the south side of the river. But somebody figured it out. I doubt I could even come up with a birch-bark canoe. Luckily, that is not my task. My task is to keep my feet dry while I hike back up to the mountainous elevations, which is challenging enough for me, as the trail like the river is choked with runoff from all that rainstorm activity. But first, I pause to count 104 coal-carrying train cars passing on the tracks beside the river. This is my second piece of industry in one morning, and I am quite impressed. That is a hell of a lot of coal. And this is just one of many trains I've heard here, presumably on one of many days. A hell of a lot of coal. No two ways about it. I've never seen that much coal in Connecticut, that's a fact. But on to the task at hand. My first overflowing stream I cross balanced on a log. I almost fall in, too, but I don't. When the water runs down the trail I walk straddling the sides, despite the dense undergrowth. I hang from a rhododendron branch and improvise stepping-stones from debris in order to cross wide gullies. I skirt a wide area of trail that has become rather a small pond. But, alas, I finally hit a stream with no hope of conceivable conveyance to the other side without sloshing through... and then realize the trail doesn't go that way. Saved again! At Curley Maple Gap Shelter, I meet more new faces. Ghost, Bison, Boogeyman, Rapunzel, Misfortune, and Ol' Grandad. Near Indian Grave Gap I meet Kutsa, whom I have seen in the registers ahead of me for awhile. I even get a glimpse of Miss Janet, that beloved and oft-talked-about trail personality whom I would have met if I hadn't chosen Uncle Johnny's instead.Misfortune gives me water, on one of the next climbs, as I am almost out and she is nice. Beauty Spot is a bald, but it is a cold one with a stiff wind blowing, and I don't linger. I stop at the next spring for water and rest, and I talk to Kutsa. She is from Israel, and she has hiked most of the trail before. She met her husband on one of her previous thru-hike attempts. Unaka Mountain, at 5180', is famous for being supposed to look like Maine at the top, but we'll have to take their word for it for the time being. Dense tall conifers cover the wooded summit, and it looks like it might be a little spooky at night. I hike down the mountain, over some more ups and downs, and eventually to Cherry Gap Shelter, where I intend to spend the night. I set up first in the shelter, but it feels crowded. It isn't, really, but people are hanging 5-gallon water bags on pegs directly over my stuff, and filtering water in such a manner that drops fall onto my precious dry socks and things, and plus, it's cold, so I look for a place to tent. As I wander through the sea of already established tents, looking for a free flat spot of ground, Kutsa and Catskill Eagle invite me to join them. Which is nice. I put on all my clothes, fire up my warmest dinner, and sit down by some logs while Catskill Eagle tells us campfire stories. I get a comforting, grounded, peaceful, sane and friendly sense from both of them. These are nice people. They don't even have 5-gallon water bags, I don't think. I go to sleep contented, thinking that, if I don't freeze to death, these two could be very nice folks to have around.