Day: September 28, 2020

Yes, today I slackpacked.  Slackpacking is when you don’t carry a full pack.  Since I only intended to do about 14 miles today, I just carried food, water, jacket, toiletries, and the sleeping bag just to fill out the pack a bit.  And I was able to carry fresh food (and a soda) with me today.

Since I did not have too far to go today, we got a lazy start.  Breakfast of steak and eggs (fresh steak and fresh eggs) and some OJ we hit the trail at 9am after a quick stop at the convenience store for a Cheerwine soda and chips to go with the two sandwiches I made before we left.

The parking lot was still full at 9am.  There was a group of 4 men hikers and a group of two ladies setting off at the same time.  The weather was cloudy and cool, but not raining.

This is one of my regular routes, so I knew the terrain well – start out with a medium climb to a small bald, down across the gap to more climbing, and a few more ups and downs until the main climb up to big bald.  Intended to get to the top by a little after noon, and leave by 1 so I could make Spivey Gap by 4.  There were some sections that were steeper than I remembered, but it has been about 5 years since I had hiked this side of Sams Gap.  I hardly drank or ate anything on the climb up in anticipation of my feast on the peak.

I reached the top shortly after noon and it was cloudy and breezy, but not too cold.  The clouds were wisping in and out, and the sun would peek its head out for a minute at a time, so I did get some views, but not great ones.  There is a gravel road up to the top, and some of the high rollers from Wolf Laurel Ski Resort drove up to the top.  It takes the wind out of your sails to know they put no effort whatsoever to get to the top to see the view.

I ate my lunch while the camera took time lapse footage of the clouds – I thought it might come out interesting with all the overhead and low level fog today.  Lunch was great – it’s hard to beat a fresh sandwich while hiking.  I packed up and left right at 1 as planned and made my way to the next bald.  On that bald, they had set some bird traps to catch and tag birds before releasing them again.  They had workers manning the traps.  I had never seen that before.

I kept on motoring and near the end of the day I hit a spot I remembered, but remembered in a different place – High Rocks.  Since the clouds were close again, and I had already set a pickup time, I skipped the short side trail to the top of the rocks this time – I’ll be back again soon.

On the last few miles back to Spivey Gap, I could see fresh trail maintenance had been done on the water bars and drainage ditches.  The soil was still soft so I know it was done after the recent rains.  The Carolina Mountain Club does frequent maintenance on these trails.  Since I hike them so often, I see their changes (always improvements) over time.  They have been putting in more water bars and steps to control erosion.

I made it down just before 4 and Karen was already there.  I guess I forgot to tell her that the parking area for the trail was actually a quarter mile before the official gap.  She had passed it and had to turn around to come back to the trailhead.  As I was walking down the trail towards the road, I could actually hear her go past, then come back to the parking area.  Good timing again.

So after another shower (two in two days) and a quick trip into town to have dinner at the brewery, it’s more reconfiguring of the gear and planning tomorrow’s slackpack and the following day’s departure.  We are waiting on a package to arrive in town Tuesday morning that I will need for the future days supplies.

…from hiking, from rain, from mice.

Last night was one of the worst nights trying to sleep on the trail. The mice that came to visit me while I was cooking dinner never went away. All night long they were carrying acorns from outside and stashing them in various places in the shelter for the winter. But two of their activities had me beyond my wits end. Apparently mice are not good at carrying acorns as they kept dropping them all night long, one about every 10 or 15 minutes. The other was in the dark they assumed that my fingers were also acorns and would come and try to grab them from me while I was trying to sleep. If you want to know how to be wide awake in a nanosecond try having a mouse grab your finger. After the third time I’d had enough and couldn’t take it anymore. I figured out a way to rig my hammock inside the shelter so that I could sleep in it still on the floor but having a barrier between me and the mice. It worked well but their falling nuts all night long still kept me awake.

The rain did finally stop just before sunrise but with the lack of sleep and the deep hollow that the shelter was in made me get a 30 minute delayed start in the morning. I didn’t start hiking till about 7:45. I wanted to get out earlier because today Karen was coming to pick me up at Sam’s Gap just 12 miles ahead.

Yes, you read that right. Karen has driven up to North Carolina to meet me for a few days while I’m in the stretch near our place in Burnsville. It looks like I will be able to make Sam’s Gap just a few hours after lunch so that will give us some time to visit.

While it wasn’t actually raining during the day the ground was still wet and saturated and the vegetation was covered with dew. Since I knew I would have laundry soon I decided to put on a dry pair of socks instead of the wet pair I’ve been wearing the last 2 days. It made a big difference too. My feet were warm and comfortable for pretty much the whole day and even though they got a little damp they stayed mostly dry.

There are two big climbs from where I was to get to Sam’s Gap and I wasn’t sure I would have enough energy to make them in good enough time since I got almost no sleep the night before. But the climbs were not as bad as I thought and I was able to make good time most of the day.

The original estimate for arriving at Sam’s Gap was 2:00 p.m. and I was able to make it at 2:15. Not bad for starting 30 minutes late and not having any sleep.

I had hiked this section 2 years before and yet everything looked a little bit different this time. While most areas of the trail were overgrown since COVID kept many of the volunteers away for much of the summer, this stretch seemed relatively weed-free. Two years ago I remember it being overrun with stinging nettles. I also noticed a lot more steps had been installed on the trail. I am guessing most of these improvements were actually done last year.

After making Sam’s Gap at 2:15 Karen rolled up just a few minutes after I arrived. She had brought a roast beef sandwich and a bottle of Gatorade which I devoured pretty quickly. A quick drive to the house, a few beers and a steak later, and I’m ready for bed. And this time I’m expecting to sleep like a log, not like an acorn.

Woke up early and got off at 7:15. The other two hikers were probably only 15 minutes behind me but they were going the other direction to the Hot Springs. As expected it rained all night long and just about the time I got ready to take off it let up a little bit but it was still raining.

And that remains the theme of the entire day.  It rained on and off throughout the day. My feet stayed wet for most of it but there were two shelters where I stopped to take breaks and I took my socks off for about 10 minutes just to let my feet dry out a little bit. But as soon as you put wet socks back on they’re instantly wet again.

Two sections of trail were on high exposed ridges with bad weather bypasses since the entire mountain was in thick clouds.  I took the ridgeline in this section about 2 years ago, so I remember the views. And they were good views. But seeing as everything was completely socked in the clouds, there were no views to be had so why bother slipping on the rocks. The bypass routes stayed about 50 to 100 ft lower elevation and basically just parallel the ridge line.

I got to Flint Mountain Shelter at 6:45. A little earlier than I expected so that was nice. The terrain today has been relatively easy and not too many rocks to slow me down.  Within 10 minutes of arriving at the shelter it started to rain pretty steadily. I was considering going further as there was a road only 2 miles ahead, but I’m glad I stopped. I was able to cook dinner and eat in the dry shelter. And now I’m listening to it raining pretty heavily all night long.