Nan's 2014 Appalachian Trail Journal

Home

May 7, 2014

By Drag'n Fly aka Nan

4/26 Saturday, 28th day - mile 273.9. Average 9.78 miles per day. In Hot Springs, NC. Short mileage day into town. Breakfast at Smoky Mtn. Diner of eggs, bacon, baked apple, and an English muffin. Much better than trail food. We are camping at Hot Springs Spa campground. Had a nice hot shower then went to pick up resupply and do laundry. Dinner at Still Mtn. Restaurant. I had a steak salad. We had a long wait for service because the place was packed with bikers (motorcycle) but it was very good and worth the wait. Tomorrow we head up the mountain out of town. No cell phone coverage in town.

4/27 I guess you may be tired of hearing this but we climbed most of the day. We should soon be reaching the Pearly Gates. Had a good night's sleep at the campground in spite of being near a very active railroad track. Before we left town we had breakfast at the Take Out Cafe adjoining the convenience store at the campground. I had delicious pancakes made from scratch with all fresh organic ingredients and real butter and real maple syrup. What a good start for the day. After crossing the French Broad River, the trail climbs to a rocky overlook called Lovers Leap. Nice view of the town and river. It was pretty warm today with bright sun. Freckles was having a real struggle with her pack, we were loaded again with five days' of food to get us to Erwin. Every time she put the pack on after our breaks, it was a wrestling match. I think we ended the day with a score of pack, four and Freckles, zero.

Gnats have been really bad. Hydro, Miracle & +1 passed us slack packing again. We had seen them in Hot Springs. In for the night at Spring Mtn. shelter, mile post 284.9, elevation 3,556'. This is the 3rd shelter in a row of very small old shelters. It only sleeps five so lot of people are in tents. Freckles counted 22. So you can see we are still traveling in the "bubble". Along with the last three shelters being small, the privies have been the smallest I have ever seen. Even I can't close the door when I sit down!

4/28 I have heard that hiking the AT is like climbing Mt. Everest 12 times. I haven't been counting but I do think we have reached the summit of Everest several times now. Warm and sunny for another short day of 10.6 miles. We got into camp just as it started to rain so we quickly set up our tents and dove in. It was only a short shower and then we could get our dinner cooked. Hydro, Miracle & +1 came by slack packing again. Several other campers came in. We now seem to be hiking around a large group of young people. We don't know any of them. Bliss & Mocio Pat (sp?) also came to camp. Schwepp also stopped by but they are the only ones that we know.

4/29 Rained hard all night so when there was a break at 7:00, we broke camp and took off. Wet gear really makes the packs heavy. It was a fairly easy hiking day but we made it another short day to Flint Mtn. Shelter. We were able to get our gear dried out and, since it is supposed to rain again tonight, we are glad we do not have to put up tents. We will just have the mice to contend with.

4/30 Thirteen miles today. What a great hike. One big 1,000 ft. elevation gain but on an old logging road so the grade was nice. The wild flowers have been wonderful. The woods are just full of trout lilies, glory of spring, iris, lupine, violets-yellow, white, all violet shades-and trillium. The trillium are everywhere--white, pink, maroon, and yellow. Stopped to make dinner at about 5:30 with plans of hiking further but after only a mile or so, it began to rain so we found a level spot and put up our tents. It got very foggy and really looked neat with all the fog and our tents pitched. Spooky!

5/1 "May Day" on the AT, nowhere better to be. Another great hike day. The fog did not leave until midafternoon so all morning we hiked in thick fog. It was pretty neat. Crossed Big Bald at 5,515' elevation and, just as we were beginning our descent, the fog lifted for about 30 seconds at most and we could see blue sky and forever. Great view until it closed in again. We did 16 miles today to No Business Shelter. Rambler was here. We had been hiking around him since NOC. The rest of his hiking group Earnhart, Bama, and Iron Cheeks took a zero day in Hot Springs and have not caught up. There was a big Trail Magic event at I-26 today, burgers, hot dogs, drinks, etc., and a lot of hiker hung back for that. There had been signs posted along the trail for the last 30 or 40 miles telling about it. Freckles and I decided to hike by with the idea that we would get a little ahead of the large group of young hikers who have been trying to stay together. There are 12 or 15 of them so when they come into a camping area they really take over. So, for us, the Trail Magic was getting ahead of them. Met a new hiker today, Hobo. I have seen Hobo sign-in at the trail registers but this is the first time we met. She was wearing a Maine Huts and Trails hat and is from Maine. Very nice, I hope we see more of her up the line.

Freckles did get to enjoy a little Trail Magic today. When we crossed the creek at Spivey Gap, someone had left some beer in the cold water so she sat and had a "cold one". Tomorrow we have 5.8 miles into Erwin where we will pick up our resupply boxes dropped off by Pete on his way back to Pennsylvania from Georgia.

Again, have a good day.
This is Drag'n Fly signing out

Home