-- Stats from Day 25 --
Beginning Point: standing Bear Farms
Ending Point: Roaring Fork Shelter
Daily Mileage: 18.5 miles
Total Mileage: 256.0 miles
Weather: warm, we managed to avoid heavy rain in favor of light sprinkles.
We had some hard climbs this morning... We climbed for about 3 hours straight before finding a downhill (I now have buns of steel! and they are sore from all these climbs!). We had lunch at an older shelter... it was very questionable because the picnic table squealed when you sat on it; it sleeps about 5 people, and the privy was the worst I've seen by far, full of bad smells and flies. They don't usually look like that. The shelter had some positive aspects, however. Our friends Goofy, Shivers, et al., stayed there last night and one of them left some Near East couscous in a hiker box, so I snagged that for second lunch. The stream was also nice and harbored salamanders, Dan's new passion (he really wants to find a hellbender and frequently stops to search under rocks for them). We had a good rest there and then pushed on for Max Patch, an enormous grassy bald that offers views of the Smokies. It was once used as a farmstead but the forest service manages it now. They've used it in the past as a landing strip(!) but maintain it now as a preserve. I'm not sure who would want to land a plane there - its not exactly flat.
We had an early dinner at Max Patch at 4 p.m.. It was a much needed rest because of the ridiculous number of ups and downs between Groundhog Creek shelter and the bald. I would like to call it a pleasant dinner spot, but I think Dan in particular would disagree. Allow me to elaborate...
You see, my good friend Dan is not fond of the heat. In fact, he thinks that anything above 75 degrees F is too hot. And like most hikers, Dan perspires when hiking; however unlike most hikers, he is dripping wet with sweat within a half hour, even in cooler weather. This seems to be an aphrodisiac for black flies and poor Dan takes the brunt of it. During our meal, Stephan and I were mostly ignored by the black fly contingency and we sat a mere few feet from Dan. We might have lingered on there for a while longer if the flies hadn't been so bad (for Dan).
We pressed on to Roaring Fork Shelter and were rewarded with a soft rain-soaked footpath that passed through lush green woods. And the trail was nearly level for the entire distance to the shelter - what a treat after all those hills prior to Max Patch!
That should do it for today; we are pretty tired but in high spirits because tomorrow night we will be in Hot Springs at the Paddler's Pub drinking beer and eating all the foods we've been craving. Mmmm, beer!
Steph
Posted by steph at May 21, 2004 03:00 AM