4/16/01
When the alarm on my watch awakened me at 6:30 this morning, I didn't want to get up after journaling last night until midnight. I hit the trail at 7:10 a.m., and Creeper and his daughter escorted me across the bridge over the French Broad River until the AT left the road. It was hard to say goodbye to Creeper after a full month of hiking together. He looked sad that he couldn't continue with me, but he gets his opportunity in 2005. The first two miles had a lot of switchbacks and was up, up, up, and my legs felt like lead after two zero mile days. But I was excited and enthusiastic about being back on the trail and the cold windy morning made it a perfect hiking day. I encountered Preacher and his brother, Mike, and Yolo, who was still in his tent when I hiked into their campsite 5 miles from Hot Springs. We chatted for a few moments, but I was anxious to keep going and besides, standing still was making me cold so I kept moving. I arrived at Spring Mtn. shelter at 11:25, having already hiked 11 miles. I stopped for lunch at the shelter and reloaded on water, and kept on hiking. I was shocked when I arrived at the Little Laurel shelter before 3:30 p.m. Wow, 19.6 miles of hiking in 8 1/2 hours including stopping for lunch and breaks. Maybe the Rabbit name is appropriate after all.
This evening we have a great group spending the night at this shelter site. Unfortunately, when I arrived the shelter was already completely full, not from thru-hikers, but a boy scout troop from Walhalla, SC. I talked with their scoutmasters for awhile and finally mentioned that there were several thru-hikers heading to the shelter that may not have tents. The troop leaders didn't seem to care and were intent on staying in the shelter despite the fact that the scouts were all carrying tents. So, there are a bunch of thru-hikers tenting or otherwise sleeping outside the shelter tonight. Our troop back home does NOT take up shelter space when we camp and it frankly irritated me that this particular troop didn't seem to care about the fate of the rest of us. In any case, the following thru-hikers are all tenting (and we're packed in on top of each other with limited level ground): Yolo, Dimples and Freebird, Alex and Denis, Wink, Sky, Tea Tree, Green Light, Tadpole, and yours truly. We all cooked dinner in a little area that had some trees down while the scouts used the picnic table in front of the shelter. I provided the post dinner entertainment as we all listened to Jeopardy on the TV band of my radio and answered the questions. The wind is howling tonight and it's cold. The forecast is for snow or rain showers after midnight as an Arctic blast comes through. Tomorrow the forecast is for more of the same with winds increasing to 30 mph. If it's cold rain and wind, it may make for a very interesting day with high hypothermia potential. Today was a gorgeous hiking day with moderate terrain and I had a great time hiking. I'm cutting the journal short tonight after a late night last night and big mileage today. Here are the stats: Low 42 degrees, high 55; mostly cloud to mostly clear. Mileage today: 19.6, cumulative 290.5.
