Wednesday, June 8th

Little Laurel Shelter (294.5 mi) to Sam’s Gap – Nature’s Inn Hostel (319.8 mi)

Hiking Miles: 25.3

Total Ascent: 5,918.3 ft

Total Descent: 5,855.6 ft

Total Grade: 468.6 ft/mi

Steps: 58.099

I got up at 4:05 am and headed out on trail by 4:47 am in the dark. A hiker who tented there last night was up and walking around his tent, and I made sure that I was careful not to shine my bright white headlamp in his direction. Leaving the shelter, I had my red (low light) lamp turned on so as to not disturb anyone with the brightness. But I soon switched modes (back to white lamp) once I reached the actual trail. Shortly into my hike, I came upon a cool sign (Big Butt Bypass) for an option to take a by-pass (which I did not). There were some steep climbs this morning but I was feeling good at that point.

After I had stopped for breakfast, I called and left a message for Amy, the hostel owner for Nature’s Inn to hopefully reserve a night’s stay and a shuttle pick-up. Soon after, she returned my call and we were able to get a cabin and a 6:00 pm pick-up at a trailhead, but to give her a call when we reached it.

During our respective solo hikes, Stevie and I came upon a cool rock named Howard’s Rock. I had heard about it previously in various videos. It was dedicated to a man named Howard McDonald who was a volunteer with the Carolina Mountain Club (CMC) for 30 years. He was actually a retired ceramic engineer. He was very instrumental in the building of many hiking trails in Western North Carolina. I subsequently read up on how he invented a ceramic filter that reduced the thickness of beer and soda cans (aluminum) since the original design was far thicker than what we have today.

Stevie met up with me at 11:15 am after I had already hiked 14 miles, and we stopped for lunch at a shelter. We only stayed for a short while and quickly got back to hiking so that we could hike 15 miles by noon.

The last 10 miles of the days were difficult with several uphill climbs, and I was seriously struggling. I did go off-trail twice; sometimes that happens in the deep woods but you realize it rather quickly when you are walking on undisturbed leaves. It was more like I was loosing focus due to being so tired and sore. I did stop for a drink of cold water at a stream, and splashed cold water over my head and face, which felt so good.

We reached Sam’s Gap by 5:00 pm; I called Amy and she came right out to pick us up. The Nature’s Inn Hostel was just two miles up the road and we settled into Cabin #3, right in front of a running creek. There were no take-out options in the area, however the hostel had plenty of comfort food to buy. The selection was pretty good actually, so we ate pizza, a cheeseburger, chips, ice cream and soda. Our cabin was cozy, however there was a hole in the porch screen where mosquitos could fly in, and they were there hanging out by the stream. So we slept with the cabin door closed and that unfortunately muffled the sound of the water flowing in the creek.

There were several hikers staying at the hostel (all of them were very friendly and nice), and whereas there was only one tv in the common lounge area, they were fine with us tuning into the Celtics-Warriors (Game 3). One young woman whose name was Chloe (trail name Cricket) convinced Stevie & I to slack pack 25 miles tomorrow to Uncle Johnny’s and share the shuttle cost for Amy to transport our packs there. This would be her first ever slack pack day and she was so excited.

However, there was another hiker who was sitting at a table with his knee propped on a chair. His trail name was “Lard”, and he was clearly out of sorts and in pain after straining his knee on trail. When we asked what he was eating, he sneered in disgust and said “It’s lard, don’t you know what lard is? I carry it on me?” I said that I knew what it was – it’s animal fat – but why are you carrying it, for cooking?” Apparently, he ate it every day right out of the jar to get his caloric intake up. I could think of many other ways to do it other than carrying a can of Crisco around. Lard was not a very social person, but in his defense he did not look comfortable, and he soon left the lounge area for his cabin. Shortly thereafter Amy told me about some ice packs she had in her freezer, and asked if I would get one to Lard to help with his knee, so I let him know.

We watched the first half of the Celtics game, then we went back to our cabin. The Celtics eventually won the game to take a 2-1 lead in the series. I video chatted with Teresa. She was sitting with the cats and they were all doing well. Teresa had slept in until 9:00 am this morning and none of the cats disturbed her.

A short time later, heavy thunder and a short burst of light rain came through the area. I was still hurting a bit and wasn’t sure about the 25 miler tomorrow, but slack packing certainly sounded good.