|
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 knawing 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. I noticed
there was a new building at the business 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 pakiderm
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,
Greg, and another girl. 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
|
