Springer Mtn, GA to Fontana Dam, NC

Day 10, Thursday, June 1

Muskrat Creek Shelter to Carter Gap Shelter, 12.8 miles

Up at 6:30 AM, breakfast, pack, and away at 8:10 AM. If the mice played last night, I missed it. I was dead to the world. No signs of bear either. I stop to pump some water and repack. Monty sets the pace this morning. His knee must not be bothering him because he is flying. Lydia and I walk, struggling along on a more deliberate pace. My heel is more heavily cushioned and taped today and it feels good for a change. We walk toward Deep Gap. My first glimpse of Standing Indian Mountain is not good. It's big and we're going to the top. We reach Deep Gap at 9:55 AM and rest thirty-five minutes. It's a gloriously sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. The sun is so refreshing. We leave Deep Gap at 10:30 AM. At 11 AM we reach the Standing Indian Mountain Shelter. I check the register and find that Billy and Aaron did make it to SI last night. They overnighted with "Mule-boy" and "Cypress". "Mule-boy" and "Cypress" are trying to do nineteen the next couple of days to reach the Nantahala Outdoor Center by Saturday. They plan to take a zero day Sunday. Maybe we'll catch up with them then.

The climb up Standing Indian is long, but not as steep as I was expecting. The trail appears to follow an old roadbed part of the way. I take my pack off at the Lower Ridge sign and hike to the top. We reach the top of Standing Indian Mountain at 11:45 AM. There is a couple with two dogs breaking camp for the hike back to Standing Indian Campground. They overnighted on top last night. The view is outstanding. I take a picture and when I try to take another, I find out that I'm at the end of the roll of film. Back down to my backpack to get another roll of film.

I have never seen so many flies and bugs on top of a mountain before. The air literally hums with them. I can't tell if they are hatching out or if the trees and flowering rhododendron have attracted them. We rest for thirty minutes and I retape my heel. We get off Standing Indian before the flies eat us alive and head for five miles of downhill.

We reach Beech Gap at 1:45 PM. We stop to pump water and make lemonade. I take off my boots to rest. There is a group of high school students taking a break at Beech Gap. They tell us there are two shelters at Carter Gap, where we are headed for tonight. There is an old one on the left and a newer one on the right. Monty finds a Pezel headlamp lying on the creek bank. No one in sight. A trail angel must have left it.

We plow on passing two Southbounders on section-hikes. As usual the last mile is two miles long. It actually turns out to be 1.4 miles. We finally struggle into Carter Gap at 3:34 PM, passing the old shelter on the left first. I throw my pack on the new shelter bench and sit down to take the meat grinders off my feet. Monty and I walk over to the old shelter to find the water source. It's a little piped spring at the bottom of the hill.

Lydia heads to the spring to clean up and I fire up the stove to boil water for supper. When she comes back, it's my turn. The water is icy cold, but cleaning up has its own special magic. When you're clean again you have new if tired energy. I head back up the hill after pumping water and finish cooking my supper. Noodle soup and Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat!

I'm slow to eat and organize my gear, but I just can't move any faster. I'm also brain dead when it comes to figuring out an agenda. I suppose I'll hike with Monty and Lydia again tomorrow. Someone is supposed to pick them up at Rainbow Springs Campground at Wallace Gap. I'll either use the bunkhouse at Rainbow Springs or I'll go with Monty and Lydia to their friend's house to clean up and do laundry. I'm still half a day ahead schedulewise. I'd planned to be at Standing Indian Shelter tonight, and I'm at Carter Gap. 7.7 miles further. Almost identical to the distance I covered the first day that I had not planned to hike.

The blister on my heel didn't hurt quite as bad today since I mole-foamed and taped it. I'll do the same tomorrow.

I have one week left on my trek from Amicalola to Fontana. Although it's been a very difficult trip physically, it has cleansed my soul in many ways. I've only thought about work a couple of times and then it was more from the perspective that when this is over I go back to a job. I envy those folks that are thru-hiking. Billy ("Frogger") and Aaron ("Torn"), Monty ("Worn") and Lydia ("Out"), and those folks finishing this year like Brian Costa ("Cypress") and David Richards ("Mule-boy"). It takes remarkable fortitude to do this. I can only imagine what thru-hikers face. I'm only out here a short time and it's been a challenge to me. It's hard to comprehend doing this for four or five more months.

The journal at Carter Gap has several references to both skunks and bears. I hope we don't have any visitors tonight. The mice will be enough!

I've decided to hike with Monty and Lydia tomorrow. They're good people. Wish I had done what they are doing a few years ago myself.

I'm not sure if we'll catch up to "Cypress" and "Mule-boy" or Aaron and Billy. They are setting a pace that I can't keep up with. We saw no familiar faces today. In fact not many people at all. Just a few Southbounders and the high school kids. Seems like a lot of folks use the Standing Indian Campground as a base for loops that use the AT for part of the hike.

It is a calm cool evening, although a little buggy. I smoked a cigar earlier that drove all of the hums out of the shelter, but now that I'm done, they're back. There is a grouse drumming in the distance and some kind of bird I can't identify making a call in the distance. This is the first night that I've noticed crickets.

Carter Gap has two shelters now. The old one is the one on the left and the new one is on the right. The old one is referred to as "The Ghetto". It looks pretty decrepit, like a good wind would bring it down. I suppose it will be removed in the future. Looks like it will be just the three of us again for the night. The others have probably made it to Big Spring Shelter for the night. M&L (Monty and Lydia) have pitched their tent on the platform and will sleep inside it tonight. They're not as experienced with the mice as I am.