Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 22: May 31, 2009
Travel:
From: Chestoa Bridge, Uncle Johnny’s Hostel, Erwin, TN
To: Cherry Gap Shelter, TN
Beginning: 9:45am
Ending: 5:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 17
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 356.9 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Cloudy and warm. Dark clouds threatened but did not produce any rain.
PM: Sunny and nice. Great to have a beautiful day again!
People: Ran into Matt again, this time his mom was with him. She came from Indiana to hike for the week with him.
Animals: Snakes and Trains (heard them)
Money: $18 for bunk and Gatorade, $538 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Finally got to sleep after midnight. The guys in the bunkhouse were watching (the movie) ’se7en’ while I was sending emails from bed. We planned to make it an early morning but failed to capitalize on that. Packed are things and hobbled out to the picnic area to eat breakfast. Some guy from the bunkhouse had tossed me an orange and it tasted magical. The hiker box right outside the bunkhouse had a bag of carrots as well so I grabbed those to nibble on with my pop-tarts. After the random assortment of food plus a Snickers I was feeling pretty good about hiking. I settled my bill for the stay and we headed out. First thing we did was cross the Nolichucky river and then head up the mountain. Shortly after starting Spoon was expressing some intense pain in his pinky toe. It seems the blister had not healed and was in fact worse. We stopped to get some gauze and medical tape around it and that seemed to take the edge off enough. After some time on the trail and some good conversations to keep his mind off of it, he was feeling a lot better.

PM: The whole day seemed to take us up and up. Climbing up to Beauty Spot we went through an area that had been ravaged by a forest fire. It was oddly beautiful. Once on top of Beauty Spot I gave my dad a call about meeting us in Damascus. He said he could be there on Sunday morning and Will would be taking the SAT on Saturday and then studying for exams. Being out here I had forgotten that school would be letting out for the summer soon. So we moved on and tackled Unaka Mountain which had a really pretty Hemlock forest on top before descending into camp. We cooked up some food quickly so we could enjoy a couple of hours of sunlight before bed for the first time in forever. We made a roaring fire and lounged around sketching designs and storyboards. Feels good to relax after a long day of hiking. Welcome back, sun!
Main concern if the day:
Spoon’s toe has to be taken care of or things could go from bad to worse fast.

Side Note: Spoon and I will be in Damascus,VA; a great hiker town this Saturday evening June 6th and taking our second ‘zero’ day on Sunday. If anyone would like to come up and see us this will probably be your best opportunity. Drop me a line if you want to come see us!