(Hi, I’ve had email contact with the guys and have received this entertaining post from Spoon, which corresponds to Hazard’s ‘notes of the day’ posts Day 10 – 15 which follow below. They were also able to upload photos, so I will gradually post them soon… -parryphrase)
May 26, 2009
Hello everyone!
As hard as you would imagine finding internet access out here, it is even harder to find a computer to make a post to the blog. A lot has happened since the last narrative. Obviously, we are out of Hiawassee (pronounced Hi-ah-wah-see) and are taking our zero day in Hot Springs, NC. Now, were to begin; I suppose where I left off before…
The last you’ve heard we’ve had several animal encounters and were a day ahead of schedule. At this point we are two days ahead, but minus the zero day here, that keeps us ahead by one. Coming out of the Hiawassee Inn, there was a crowd of hikers being ferried back to Dicks Creek Gap. Among them were a very friendly elderly couple who are hiking this trail for the second time. Apparently they live on a sail boat and work only six months a year and have adventure the other six months. They were a couple of characters and helped us get creative with some of our meals. The day we left is also the day we hit the NC state line, a small post on a tree saying “NC/GA”. That night we stayed at the Muskrat Creek Shelter with the couple, Just Bill, and Arthur. The evening was spent in a nice shelter and making friends that we’ll remember for a lifetime.
A thunderstorm soothed our sleep and we were thankful to have a roof over our heads. All in all the day was easy until Albert Mountain. To give you some perspective, when you first see Albert Mnt. you see a beautiful ranger tower in the distance and you speculate how nice it would be to catch the view. A few miles later you come across a sheer cliff face that you have to climb up and when you get there, it is cold and full of bugs. A short hike later we hit a shelter with two of the rudest older men I’ve met. The first thing that one of them said was ‘With that knee you won’t make it to Katadin”. He then proceeded to make fun of me for building a fire that I was making for him. This was all just foreshadowing for the next day.
In the morning we woke up as one of the men was peeing right beside the shelter. The entire day was wet and overcast. We had the opportunity to go into Franklin, NC, but skipped out because we were in no need of resupply and we just wanted the day to end. This day can be summed up as trudging through cold rain and mud. The ‘beautiful view’ on top of Wayah Bald was completely obscured by clouds and we couldn’t see two feet in front of ourselves. After the Wayah Bald tower, we took a wrong turn and went about a mile out of the way getting lost. Turning around, we found the shelter just down the trail. Just before we made our way down to the shelter, a drove of wild hogs crossed our path twice. At the shelter, we met Bombadillo and 15, who capped the day with some good entertainment and new friendships; not to mention the best meal we’ve had on the trail so far – Beef Lipton packaged with pepperoni and beef ramen noodles.
The sun came out in all of its glory the next day, as we knew we would be sleeping in a bed that night. The view we lost on Wayah Bald was made up for on Wesser bald. The tower on top of this was an open top fire tower with a 360 degree view of the surrounding terrain, including a view of the NOC, where we would end the day. Hazard and I took our lunch on top of the tower. Meeting Bombadillo again, we hiked the extra miles into the Nantahala Outdoor Center; a crossroads for rafting, kayaking, and all sorts of outdoor activities. We rented a room in a bunk house with Bombadillo and one other person who was already set up. We quickly realized we were the odd kids on the block as not everyone else stank quite as badly or looked quite as grizzly as we did. That evening, we hitched a ride into Bryson City and ate some Mexican food and drank a magarita or two. Resupplying at the grocery, it took a while to get a hitch back, but lucky for us there are nice enough people in the world.
We woke up stiff and not yet mentally prepared for the challenge ahead. The hike out of the NOC is notoriously steep and long. We passed the Sassafras Gap Shelter at the top of one of the mountains, and it was surprisingly nice. Alas! It was not our stop for the night. The next miles out were from hell, especially the last 2.5 up the hill to Brown Fork Gap Shelter. Exhausted, we came into camp to meet Loyal and Crawl. Loyal is apparently hiking the AT to raise money for Habitat for Humanity (www.hfhmgc.org/AT). Crawl, looking like he was near death, had what seemed to be a very hurt ankle and a big snoring problem. Bombadillo came into the camp late after getting almost all new gear and did not sleep a wink. The best analogy for Crawl’s snoring is like listening to screws in a blender. Somehow we managed to get a few winks in and woke up with a new sense of the word ‘noise’.
Leaving Loyal and Crawl (Crawl being named for his slow pace), we made our way to Fontana Dam. The morning progressed uneventfully, but as we were passing the ‘Fontana Hilton’, a very nice shelter at the dam, we met Mountain Mike and his dog Pumpkin. Both were staying at the Hilton and gave us a lift to a nice grill where we ate some very good burgers and enjoyed a few comforts before we proceeded on. This was our first bit of ‘Trail Magic’, as he was nice enough to drive us wherever we needed or wanted to go. Taking us to the dam, we thanked him as we walked across the long exposed road. The other side of the Fontana Dam is the boundary to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. On the way in we saw two black bear cubs shuffling down a tree. The views were great and we also found a very friendly deer who let us take pictures with him/her. It was a long uphill to the Mollies Ridge Shelter. A bunch of people were at the shelter already, many of them thu-hikers so I set up the hammock to be out of the way and away from the snoring. Hazard could not get comfortable and moved to the shelter, but because he left, the wind made a lot of noise and I slept beneath it.
Again we started hiking that next day to more uphills. We ran into many more thru-hikers this day. Along the trail we met Needles, a tattoo artist from Montana. When we came into Double Spring Gap Shelter, a fire was already rolling. A couple of people out for the long weekend made it to keep the bugs away and we also ran into Chairman. Chairman oddly enough went to NC State and majored in industrial design (hence chair-man). Deer filtered in an out of the campsite as we ate, taking little notice of us. We also met Flash, a thru-hiker.
The morning started out with a few clouds in the sky, but not a chance of rain until later. Today, we’d reach the highest altitude of the trip at Clingman’s Dome, 6643 ft. A tall tower with a winding ramp to the top, a lot of tourists take the short walk to the top. Many of these weekenders had only a cursory knowledge of the Appalachian Trail, if at all, and Hazard and I spent about an hour entertaining them with our stories thus far. ‘It’s all down hill from here’ we joked, knowing that this is not going to be easy. We took another rest at Newfound Gap, where a lot of people go to hitch into Gatlinburg, TN. We rested for a bit, reacquainted ourselves with Arthur, and entertained more visitors. Arthur apparently switched his hiking shoes to hike in his Crocs. That boy is nuts. We took a short day and stopped at Icewater Spring Shelter. There we met a mother and daughter pair who had hiked from Springer Mt., Kayla and ‘Mom’.
The sun rose beautifully and a bear was pawing at the bottom of another man’s pack that was hung up on the cables, no damage was done though. We had a few laughs and left the camp on full stomachs, knowing we were going to resupply tomorrow. To ease the blow on ourselves getting into Hot Springs, we decided to make this our longest day. It was over 27 miles that day, with the last 5 hiking behind horses. The smell and the torn up trail didn’t help our feet, but because the terrain was so gradual, we were still moderately high energy by the end. We rolled into Davenport Gap Shelter late and ate dinner, meeting Matt. Conversation was short lived as we went to bed.
It was .9 miles to get outside of GSMNP, (Great Smoky Mts. National Park) and we hit Highway 40. We had planned on this day being about 17 miles, but we got somewhat lost on our way up to the resupply at Standing Bear Farm. After the massive price gouging that ensued, we left with a light load, prepared for the next town, Hot Springs, the following day. Getting turned around again, we wasted an hour finding the trail again. The rough wet hike was only met by a shelter full of hikers and no room for us. Hazard set up under the overhang and I set up the hammock and tarp. It rained that night and we went to bed wearing frowns.
The morning was dimly lit and we left camp before anyone. Only 18 miles into town and then a zero day. We had a shallow breakfast and hiked hungry until lunch. We ate on top of a large boulder next to a cliff and beautiful waterfall. The weather was pleasant at that point and only a few miles out after lunch we ran into a cooler full of bottled water, crackers and snickers bars in the middle of the woods. This on top of realizing it was only 5 more miles into town, was the best present we’ve gotten in the woods. 3 miles outside of town and the rain started pouring. Sopping, we trudged into the city and tried to find our hostel. The Sunnybank Inn is a beautiful Victorian house in the middle of Hot Springs. Chris and Jenny, the caretakers, could not be more welcoming and the rooms were beautiful and perfect. Cat later came by and met up with Hazard and we ate a large pizza for dinner. After dinner we headed back and I reacquainted myself with many of the thru-hikers that crossed our path before, Centaur, Loyal, Matt, Arthur, and the caretakers. The music room of the house was fully stocked and songs and good times rang until late hours; till 11pm. I stayed up a bit later, and then went to bed.
The morning of our first zero started with a breakfast fit for a king, provided by the Inn. Banana nut muffins, granola, tea, and the works. Chris and Jenny couldn’t be more welcoming. If you have the chance to go through Hot Springs, say hello and stay there. You won’t regret it.
And that brings me here, the library at Hot Springs, and waiting for the rest of the day to occur. Wait! Don’t they have a special at the hot springs on Tuesdays?!?
-atspoon
