Sweet Tea, anyone!

Sunday, April 07, 2013
Destination: Brown Fork Shelter
Starting Location: Sassafrass Gap Shelter
 Today's Miles: 9.00 Trip Miles: 141.32

Cheoah Bald Marker.  How can I calibrate my altimeter with this?

Cheoah Bald

Dressed for hiking!

Tough nine miles today. When I came to  NC143 I found a nice picnic area with tables and a parking lot and took this opportunity to rest for a while. I was very low on water with no source near by, so when two ladies drove into the parking lot I walked over, with my best Yogi* face,  and asked if they had any extra water.  They did not, but they did have a big cup of sweet tea from McDonals, (you know you are in the South when people offer you sweet tea).  I don't like sweet tea but gladly accept it with much appreciation, and I could use the extra calories.  I drank sweet tea while growing up in Kentucky and switched to non sweetened as an adult

I meet Tore Knos, a Swede a little younger than me and he snapped the above photo of me.

 The day ended with a long climb up Jacob's ladder, a seemingly strait up climb of several hundred feet elevation gain. I don't the trail maintainers here are familiar with switchbacks...  And did I mention that I hate long climbs late in the day?

*Yogi - verb, to beg for food without it being obvious.  Origin: The cartoon character Yogi Bear

 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Strait up!

Saturday, April 06, 2013
 Destination: Sassafrass Gap Shelter
Starting Location: NOC
Today's Miles: 6.90 Trip Miles: 132.32

Tee shirt hiking, sure sign of spring!

Another sign of spring!

View of NOC from the trail.

Lots of hikers stayed at the NOC ( Nantahala Outdoor Center a commercial outdoor recreation center) for hiker a fest as there would be free food and displays of gear and a free gear repair tent.  I decided to move on, and the this shelter is as far as I can go. I started the day with a good breakfast at the Rivers Edge restaurant and that really helped.

Six point nine miles strait up! 3,000 feet elevation gain!  Like being trapped on a down escalator and couldn't get off and had to keep going up or get swished!  Good training for the Smokies, I guess.


Alone in the shelter for the night. Frenchie (Frencb/Canadian) is here but set up his tent. He said he sent 12 pounds home yesterday to lighten his pack from fifty something pounds. He had been a scout leader and the standard for them was one third of their body weight for their packs. He said he weighted one hundred and eighty pounds and figured he could carry sixty pounds.  Wrong!  Guess that did not account for all of the climbs and over 2,000 miles! He mentioned the heavy sandals he had been using for camp shoes and I showed him my $9.00 Walmart Crocs knockoffs that are almost weightless.  He said he would most definitely find as pair, even if he had to get the name brand.  This is what most hikers were using for camp shoes.


 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Warming up for spring!

Friday, April 05, 2013
 Destination: NOC
Starting Location: Wesser Bald Shelter
Today's Miles: 5.80 Trip Miles: 125.42

Weather turned nice today an it was 50* and sunny by the time I got to the NOC. Caught up with GloBug,et al. Lunch, laundry, phone calls, a good calorie filled dinner,  an am ready for the big climb tomorrow.  I will spending  the night in a platform tent (free for the weekend) and watch Grizzly Man documentary. He was strange for sure. So was the documentary. We had a big fire going later and so it was late to bed.




"All that is gold does not glitter,
 Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Ice forest!

Thursday, April 04, 2013
 Destination: Wesser Bald Shelter
Starting Location: Wayah Bald Shelter
Today's Miles: 10.60 Trip Miles: 119.62

 

Edit: For a video view of this day go to

 http://www.deadlyquests.com/201

where Eric has some footage of the ice forest.
I hiked by the tent site between 10 and 11am.
Talked to some inside the one of the tents and
 I remember them mentioning Mountain Man.




Didn't get away til just before 10:00 but was able to do 10.6 miles in freezing rain with iced limbs falling around me every where! A number of them sound too close and made me scramble.  Highlighter was following about a hundred feet or so behind me when I heard the loud cracking sound of a large limb breaking and falling.  It sounded like it was maybe 50 feet or so behind me.  Highlighter said it sounded like it was just in front of him.  Neither of us were able to see it.  We came to what looked like the oldest shelter on the trail.  I was very small and already crowed at noon.  We stopped to have some lunch and Highlighter decide he was through for the day and would wait for a spot to open up as some of the people were just taking a break from the freezing rain for a while.  I decided to keeping going since I was feeling good and keeping warm and dry even in this weather.

Near the Wesser Bald Tower the trail was poorly marked and I turned toward the tower and continued past down what looked like a trail but the further I went, the less it looked so.  I descended about half a mile without seeing a white blaze and decided that it was an old access road for the tower that had not been used for decades.  Turn around and hike back up the mountain with chunks of ice and limbs coming down all around me.  Add one more mile to my credit of miles hiked!  The temperature hovered around 32* all day and my new jacket seems to be working just fine in that range!

I stopped just short of the shelter to get the water I would need for the night and next morning.  The shelter was full and I had to sleep on the edge at everyone's feet. No problem with that, just had to climb into my sleeping bag early because I was starting to chill. Warmed up quickly and was nice and comfortable and dry!



 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Wednesday, April 03, 2013
 Destination: Wayah Bald Shelter
Starting Location: Franklin, NC
Today's Miles: 11.00 Trip Miles: 109.02

Wayah Bald stone Fire tower.

I left Franklin an rejoined the trail for my biggest day yet! Eleven miles! Wow, the rest did me good. Killer big climb at the end of the day. I hate big climbs at the end of the day!


 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Destination: Franklin, NC
Starting Location: Franklin, NC
 Today's Miles: 0.00 Trip Miles: 98.02

 Decided to stay another day. This old body requires a lot of rest! I did resupply, laundry, an bought a new rain jacket. My cheepy one has no means of venting and the inside gets just as wet as the outside from the sweat  I hope this new works better for nearly 10X the price.  At least it weights a little less! I dropped the old one in the hiker box hoping someone else can get some use from it.  I also found a nice long sleeved pullover shirt to add to my hiking wardrobe.

I sent my Stri-pen home and switched to aquamira to save a little weight!  With the batteries and charger it weighed several ounces, and I learned that the batteries were some times unreliable in the very cold weather!


 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Monday, April 01, 2013
Destination: Franklin, NC
Starting Location: Long branch shelter
Today's Miles: 7.30 Trip Miles: 90.72

 
Got to Winding Stair Gap and US64 and the second vehicle stopped for me and drove me to Budget Inn. What a country! Hike seemed harder today for some reason. Walked down the street for Domino's pizza and it was great!

Did not do a lot in town today, that can wait until tomorrow.  Now I need my rest!

Meet Woodstock and Cook-n again, Cook-n was doing a zero to give his blisters time to heal a little.  Saw a few other hikers, so I know, some I did not!

Just a not on the sign post photo.  I took a lot of photos of sign post.  Not for sentimental reasons, but to help me keep track of where I was on the trail at any given time.  If I had doubts of where I was, and this happened a often, I would check the time stamp on sign post photo to see how long I had been hiking from that point, and could get a rough estimate of where I was on the trail.  I would have to allow for elevation gains or losses for my hiking speed. 

The only thing I had for a map was a elevation profile of the trail showing miles, elevation gains and losses. and features/places names  on the trail.  I also carried an altimeter to show my current elevation, and this was immensely valuable.   I just had to remember to calibrate it daily. Margaret bought it a few years ago and during the cold weather, the battery finaly gave up and had to be replaced.


"All that is gold does not glitter,
  Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Sunday, March 31, 2013
Destination: Long branch shelter
Starting Location: Carter Gap Shelter
Today's Miles: 8.60 Trip Miles: 75.52

New shelter, really nice. Good crowd. Meet Don's Brother.

 8.6 is my best miles to date! Albert Mountain  was a fun climb, 300' elevation  gain nearly strait up, almost needed climbing gear. A little later rain made it tougher for others, I'm sure.  The tower, at the summit of Albert Mountain, marks the first 100 miles of the trail.  I need to recheck my mile counter.

I was interviewed by Eric at the start of the steep climb that lead to the tower at the summit of Albert Mountain.  It is currently on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md8jsE5TqpQ

 Eric is guy talking about the climb just after reaching the tower.

I really felt good after the climb and went a little faster, for a while! Everyone was heading for Rock Gap for trail magic, but I knew I couldn't make it so I stopped here.  I missed out on the omelets, darn it!



. "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Saturday, March 30, 2013
Destination: Carter Gap Shelter
Starting Location: Muskrat Shelter
Today's Miles: 7.90 Trip Miles: 83.42


 Steep start not too bad, steep for last mile was a killer.

 "All that is gold does not glitter,
   Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien

Friday, March 29, 2013
Destination: Standing Indian Mtn Shelter
Starting Location: Muskrat shelter
Today's Miles: 3.90 Trip Miles: 66.92



"All that is gold does not glitter,
 Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien