|
June
4, 1983 Saturday (1812.2mtg) From
Gonzo!s Appalachian Trail journal
Woke
up in the middle of the night and scrambled to put my pack cover
over my pack after heavy thunder and lightening rudely interrupted
my slumber. I decided to cover my pack to keep any rain from soaking
the pack hanging from one of the main beams like a decoration of
some sort. With the large populations of mice that inhabit the shelters,
most hikers hang their food bags from the beams with some
sort of string to deter the mice from getting into their valuable
cargo. The methods of determent are as numerous as the stars, but
none are as effective as the one that I employ. Probably the most
common method is stringing a cord over a beam and suspending the
sack from it. Unfortunately there are mice that could outperform
any circus high wire act, and the mice have learned to follow the
cord down to the food sack. Other mice like the commacazi method.
With this method, the mice follow the cord down to the side of the
beam and then drop onto the bag for lunch. I carry a small screw-in
cup hook that I screw into the underside of a main beam and suspend
my entire pack from the hook by a thin nylon cord. With this method,
the mice have no way of telling that there is anything hanging from
the beam to follow or drop down upon. I also hang the pack as low
as I can without leaving it accessible to larger rodents from the
ground level. Works like a charm. Just as a precaution, I always
leave all the zippers open in my pack so any mouse lucky enough
to find my pack won't have to chew through the fabric to get at
the food. They only eat a little bit anyway. It is the sound of
the chewing that really gets to me. That gnawing sound will keep
me from sleeping just as if I had drank loads of a caffeinated beverage.
I think what really bothers me about it is wondering if they are
destroying my pack … are they inside mine, or are they in someone
elses? Occasionally, before I learned about the screw hook method,
I would get up in the dark, listen close to my pack to determine
where the noise was coming from, and then prepare for the attack.
As I quickly turned the flashlight on, the mouse scurried out of
the pack into my waiting hand poised there to grab it, squeeze it,
and throw it to the ground before it knew what had happened and
had a chance to bite me. If that didn't kill it, it sure would give
'em a good warning not to mess with the backpacker with no name.
The sky did open up last night and the rain came in torrents. Perhaps
that is why we did not wake until 6:30 having missed the alarm once
again. The beep, beep, beep of my wrist watch alarm was not very
loud even when uncovered, so if my wrist were inside my sleeping
bag I think it was probably muffled to undetectable levels, especially
during a rainstorm playing a tune on the corrugated tin roof covering
found over most of the shelters. One way to make up for lost time
was to eat a cold breakfast. Not having to start up the stove can
shave lots of time off your morning ritual. In this case we ate
our instant oatmeal with cold water. It really gives the gruel a
different flavor - in some ways better than when it is hot. So we
were packed up and on the trail by 7:05 am. The morning hike started
off with a few nice sprinkles, but soon ended. The beginning of
the day featured a descent into the Nolichucky River valley near
Erwin, Tennessee. There were some good views of Erwin and the river
on the way down, but the dampness of the foliage and the occasional
drizzle made it too wet and too much of a hassle to get the camera
out.
The trail crosses the river via a highway bridge and turns right
along a gravel road that leads to Nolichucky Expeditions, a whitewater
rafting and canoeing outfitter on the banks of the Nolichucky River.
From the bridge, it is about 2.3 miles of walk or hitch into the
town of Erwin, Tennessee. Erwin is the resupply point before the
next trail town 114 miles down the trail in Damascus, Virginia.
I called home from the Nolichucky Expeditions payphone (16 minutes
- Cost $8.62). Mom's
notes indicated that I had asked certain items be included in
a package sent to Adkins, Va. Those items included a couple of spoonfuls
of alfalfa seeds, Ramen Noodles, Snickers bars, granola bars, and
what seems to be a request for a large package of noodles - not
including "soup". I think maybe I was asking for extra
noodles to add to our dinners for extra bulk and calories. I was
told there would be a package waiting at Damascus, Va for me. She
hoped I liked the surprises inside. I guess Jim and I were also
toying with the idea of growing sprouts along the way as I had learned
about on my previous trip in 1981. In just a few days we could grow
a handful of sprouts in a Nalgeen bottle with a cloth screen over
the mouth of the bottle. Extra protein - that was all it was about.
I really did not like eating them with my peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches though. Taking a quick look around the Nolichucky Expeditions
facilities, I noticed there was a new building since the last time
I was there two years earlier.
Erwin has the unique distinction of being the only place in the
world that has ever hung an elephant. Many years ago when there
was a traveling circus passing through and while stopping for a
performance, something startled the large elephant and caused it
to trample a young boy. As a result the town lynched the pachyderm
with a good stout rope, and considered this justice. Click
here for details on this fascinating story. Fearing for our
lives, we moved on to Curly Maple Shelter, about three miles up
the trail. Part of the trail out of the river valley follows a smaller
creek or stream bed called Jones Branch, which due to the recent
heavy precipitation, was somewhat swollen from runoff. The trail
crossed back and forth over the stream several times on the climb
out of the valley. In the process we managed to get our boots totally
soaked. About seven miles beyond the shelter we traversed the open
grassy summit of Beauty Spot. It is a natural bald, but the clouds
hung low in the sky. Although the sky was filled with ominous reminders
of rain, the mountains were not covered and provided very nice views.
After dipping down into one of the many "Low Gaps" along
the trail, we ascended Unaka Mountain. Unaka Mountain has a wooded
summit as opposed to the natural bald that exists on Beauty Spot.
The ascent was slow and we took a breather in the coniferous forest
that existed at the top. We descended through mud and muck, ascended
and descended, and ascended and finally descended into the shelter
at Cherry Gap. Three other hikers were there already: the Mad Pollock
(Marty Trepanowski), Greg, and another girl (probably Sally Gwinner
who traveled with Marty, and eventually getting married). Marty
was def and could not speak. (He has done 2000 miles of the PCT
over the years in sections, and also returned to the AT in 2010
for a trip of 1300 miles) We had arrived between five and six in
the evening, one of the latest arrivals that we had up to this time.
The clouds obscured the sun until this time of the day, but magically
appeared when we arrived at the shelter. Cherry Gap Lean-to had
a very nice spring about 250 feet down a side trail. We gathered
water, cooked our supper and relaxed as I wrote in my journal for
a while. It had been a long day - 22 miles. We made good use of
the partial tube of "Deep Heating Rub" that we found at
Curley maple Gap shelter 12 miles back. It is amazing what can sometimes
be found along the trail…. and what hikers will do with it
once it is found. We met a guy from the Tennessee Eastman Hiking
Club somewhere along the trail today clearing trail today. There
are volunteers out there, even though sometimes it seems as if there
are sections that seem to go unnoticed.
Gonzo!
Appalachian Trail Journals ©1983
|
