4/09/01
Wow! So much happened yesterday I forgot a couple of things in the journal! First, the stats from yesterday: Low: 43 degrees, high 82 degrees in Knoxville, sunny! Mileage: 4.5, cumulative mileage 203.8. Also yesterday...after the wedding reception we were back at the Armstrong residence watching the Masters when the doorbell rang. It was Bill, whose daughter was the bride from the wedding. He has personally driven over with a 2 liter bottle of malted Canadian beverage "for the hiker" to have some carbohydrates for the diet. Thanks Bill, for the trail magic and great hospitality!
This morning we slept in (7:45 a.m.). I wrote the longest journal entry so far. After packing up and drinking one of Eric's Cheerwines from the Knoxville stash (it's sold only in the Carolinas...cherry cola type drink but better), Jane and Pat and Creeper and I took a leisurely tour down I-40 through construction to Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I chowed a wonderful big breakfast including a Spanish omelet with salsa and biscuits and gravy. The restaurant was great but with a 10:30 a.m. meal we were stuffed when we arrived at Newfound Gap to resume the trail. After a couple of photos we said goodbye to Pat and Jane and began the hike north at 11:52 a.m. It was a stunningly beautiful afternoon to hike in the Smokies and we soaked up every view (of which there were countless numbers). We hiked to Charlie's Bunion and stopped for photos of Mt. LeConte and the valley floor below. Views were at least 30-50 miles and it more than made up for the two days in the fog climbing up to the 6000 ft. range. We stopped at Ice Water Spring shelter and there met "Loose Goose" from Maryland and "Lion King". We were still stuffed from breakfast and kept hiking. It was a fairly slow pace but Creeper did well considering how long he's been off the trail and the pain of the tendonitis. We arrived at Peck's Corner shelter around 5:45 p.m. There was only one hiker here when we arrived...we're not sure he's a thru-hiker and he said he hiked from Tampa, FL to here using roads and only a sleeping bag, no tent...who knows??? We asked him his name and at first he said he couldn't remember then he said it is "Echo".
We prepared dinner outside of the shelter. "Moose", "Opie" from Buffalo, NY, "Loose Goose", and 6 spring break short term hikers are here in the shelter tonight (13 of us total). It's currently 9 p.m. and many of them are just now cooking dinner in the dark with no flashlight. It wouldn't surprise me if we have a large black visitor tonight the way food is being handled here around the shelter. Speaking of bears, just before we reached the junction where the side trail led to the shelter from the AT, Creeper stopped for a moment to catch his breath. I was behind him and looked to my side down the side of the mountain. About 10 yards down there was a pile of trash. I thought it was odd, so I decided to bushwhack down the side of the mountain to check it out. Sure enough, the trash was a pile of wrappers from food including breakfast bars, Pop-Tart wrappers, macaroni and cheese box, MRE's (military pre-prepared foods), hand warmers and a mesh bag. The bear obviously was successful at hauling off someone's food from the shelter we're in tonight, took it up the trail and enjoyed his feast. From the looks of it, it appears this happened within the last two weeks. I'm sure the bear will come back looking for more at some point, and it's sad that it happened, because ultimately the bear will lose and be destroyed if he becomes a nuisance at the shelter. A lot of the folks here in the shelter tonight actually saw a bear today. So far I've missed out...but there's a lot more opportunity for that in the next 5 months. Today's stats: mileage 10.4, cumulative mileage 214.2. Low 45 degrees, high 68. Sunny!! Happy, happy, happy hiking. This sure beats working for a living!!! Oh, one more thing! I'm the proud owner of a new sleeping bag tonight. I bought an ultra-light Sierra designs 30 degree bag with no zipper; it only weighs 1 lb. 7 oz!!! I lost 2 lbs. in my pack and hopefully I'll be more comfortable these cool spring nights! Sweet Dreams! RABBIT
