Easter Sunday, April 12th, 7pm "I am sitting on a log at the Carter Gap Shelter - well shelters, as there are two of them here. I am watching the sun go down. It was an amazing day today.
As I said last night, yesterday was a stinky day - cold and misty, no more than a 5 second glimpse of the sun all day long. Cold last night too - 33 degrees with high humidity and wind that was just flat out bone chilling. Got up at 6:45 this morning to a beautiful clear sky. Last night we had an interesting experience. Three times we heard a single coyote howl. A lone howler is unique - they usually howl in packs while hunting. This solo howler even got close one time - about 150 yards. Had owls last night too. And one of the dogs gave a single bark at 4:30 to something. We don't know what it was but it must have vamoosed because nothing came to the shelter and the dog was still here this morning.
A big change from yesterday! On the trail at 7:30 under a beautiful clear sky. Going from Muskrat Creek Shelter to Standing Indian Mountain looked challenging - a 1000' rise in two miles. As we approached the bottom of the mountain we came across multiple tents and cars all set up. It was our first taste of Trail Magic, and it was great! They were making omelettes to order, sandwiches to order for the trail and had everything - sweetbreads, fruit, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, coke - you name it. It was an amazing spread. For 18 years in a row this guy who was leading it has come out on Easter morning and made this brunch for thru-hikers. It was our luck that we happened by at just the right time! There were at least 20 thru-hikers there. Mark really chowed down, but I was still full from our breakfast earlier. They were very friendly folks. He had hiked the AT in 1979, and was doing this as a way to pay back all the kindness he received on the trek. It was very cool!
We stayed 45 minutes or so there and were the first ones out. Everybody was chowing down! We left at 11 and headed up Standing Indian Mountain
- what a pleasant surprise! It was two miles of well graded trail that was much better than any of the prior trails uphill. It was amazing though that there was no sign at the top for the access trail to the summit. So we rummaged around for a while and found the summit 75 yards to our right, and we're glad we did! A fabulous view, probably at least a 100 mile vista. Looking down you could see the outline of the AT. It still has not greened up here, so with the exception of the Holly trees, Mountain Laurels and the Rhodies, everything else here is leafless. It was cool seeing the trail wind around over a half mile below us. We took some pix, and had some others who were there take a picture of us (I think Bob looks even shorter ... is he wearing down?) Then we continued cruising on to this place - I already forgot its name. The first shelter we came to looked like an original from the 30's, but Mark had read there was another a little ways past that one, and we found it. Because it was a beautiful day today we are know we've got to pay the price. We are expecting heavy rains tonight and all day tomorrow. We've decided to bite the bullet and stay in the shelter tonight. There are only five of us so far for a 6 person shelter - not as cramped as the Woods Hole Shelter was a couple of days ago. We have learned it is worth putting up with the shelter if weather is coming in, because you can pack up dry and get your waterproofing in order before you leave. The weather radio is calling for lots of rain after midnight and on and off all day tomorrow and into Tuesday morning, then again late on Tuesday. Tomorrow we'll try to get to a shelter that is only 4 miles from the 64 road crossing near Franklin, NC. Then Tuesday we'll hike a 'nero' of 4 miles to the crossing and head into a hotel in Franklin for a meal, resupply, and a day off the trail and so on and so forth.
It was a very good day - as lousy as yesterday was, today was as good. Did 12 miles today, and hope to do 12 tomorrow. Signing off ...
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