June 2, 1983 Thursday (1851.4
mtg) From
Gonzo!s Appalachian Trail journal
Highlights
along the trail today included the view from the firetower on Camp Creek Bald,
and the climb up a mountain named "Big Butt." On the way up Big Butt
the trail follows an old Jeep road that could be tough even for an experienced
off road driver. This section of trail was so heavily eroded that the gulleys
carved out of the roadway could have practically swallowed a jeep. I began
to wonder whether we were actually traveling up the "Crack" of the
Big Butt. Soon after our journey through the "Crack," we passed through
an area known as the "Ball Ground." Don't ask, I have no idea. Around
lunch time, just after the Ball Ground, we encountered a set of gravestones along
the trail. I prefer to stop at easily identifiable locations, or places with a
view as spots for breaks and lunches. From these gravestones, which were erected
in 1915 to mark the graves of two brothers who were killed during the civil war,
we could pinpoint the distance that we need to travel to our next stop. We had
roughly ten more miles to reach camp. We set out today with an expectation of
putting in 19.5 miles or so, but after arriving at an area known as "Big
Flat," the spot where a campsite and water was supposed to be - but was not,
we moved on to Sam's Gap, an additional 4.4 miles. At the gap, we were expecting
to find an abandoned building we could use as a shelter and a grocery store two
tenths of a mile down the road from the road crossing. The building was there,
but the draw of possible food and beverages pulled us like a magnet as we followed
the road down the mountain and found the store to be something more like two miles
down the road! After what seemed forever, we found an Exxon gas station with a
Soda machine and some groceries. I bought a can of pineapples, two Snickers bars,
and one half gallon of Neopolitan ice cream. We hung around the gas station and
split the ice cream between us while we contemplated the long uphill roadwalk
back to the trail in Sam's Gap. This was some of that extra mileage that neither
one of us wanted to tack on to our total. After all, when everything is done,
off-trail mileage is not really included in the tally from Georgia to Maine. It
is purely extra and counts for nothing. But it did give me a chance to have a
quart of ice cream.
I bought two sodas for the road and persuaded a local
man who had a bad case of emphysema to give us a ride back to the trail in his
car. I guess he could relate to the amount of huffing and puffing that we would
have had to endure to hike our way back to the Gap.
At the Gap there
was an old building that the "Philosophers
Guide" had stated was a possible shelter. "No Trespassing"
and "Keep Out" signs decorated the run down building. From the road
the building appeared to be inaccessible with each of the windows boarded up.
We circled the building, disregarded the warning signs, and searched for an access.
We found one spot which allowed entry and quickly ducked inside. Shortly afterwards,
a man came and unlocked the building's door and came inside. We froze in the shadows
while he did his duty and then left locking the door behind him. Later a younger
guy came by and discovered us. We asked him if it was all right for us to spend
the night in the building. He did not know, and suggested that we ask the old
guy if it was OK. Upon asking, the old man suggested that we stay in an abandoned
house just down the road. He said there was a nice spring there as well. We grabbed
our gear and set out down the road in the opposite direction from the way we had
gone to the gas station. Was this perhaps the abandoned building the
guide (#5) was referring to? I think we did not read it thoroughly and having
seen the concrete building, thought that was the only building available. Within
a few hundred yards around a bend in the road was a great spring and a long abandoned
house with rubble, fallen tree limbs and miscellaneous garbage scattered over
the floor. All the windows were broken out and sky could be seen through parts
of the roof. It appeared that that the place had been like this for quite a while.
We assessed the situation, were not really happy with the condition, but cleaned
a spot large enough to sleep on and prayed that there would be no rain during
the night. Later on we were joined by another group of five hikers known as the
"C Company." The extra company gave us someone to talk to, and provided
a diversion from the cars that went by on the road that was situated much too
close to the front of our "home." For supper, Jim and I had Spaghetti
and Meatballs that we had purchased from the store down the other side of the
mountain.
Today, at least the later part of the day, I developed a tightness
in the tendon and muscle of my lower right calf muscle. I attributed this to the
rush to get to Sam's Gap along with the fact that there was a particularly bad
section of ups and downs between Devils Gap and Sam's Gap. Sections of the trail
today near Big Butt and the Ball Ground bordered what was marked as a bear sanctuary;
however, no bears were spotted. My
Mother went
to the post office today and sent a package to Damascus at a cost of $3.09 (see
postal receipt).
Gonzo!
Appalachian Trail Journals ©1983
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