April 27

The great escape

As it turned out, it would have been really tough to get to Boone, so that idea quickly went away.  Left the comfort of the hotel, full on sausage gravy and cinnamon rolls, headed a mile back down the highway toward the trail.  I waited around at Uncle Johnny's for a while, drinking a soda, while some of my friends were waiting on the store there to open.  The proprietor was out on a shuttle run, and didn't come back until 2:30.  Left from Johnny's, crossed the road, and got back on the trail.  Crossed the Nolichucky River bridge, and popped back into the woods.  I made it to the Curley Maple shelter after 4.7 miles.  Many hikers were already there setting up.  There was a challenge written on the shelter wall:  Two hikers, with only one backpack, had to leave the shelter after 5pm, go to Rockys Pizza in town (waayyyy across town) and get 2 large pies, and then get a case of beer, and get back to the shelter in the fastest amount of time, all while never splitting up.  Two hikers there did it.  I later heard they beat the record.  Under 2 hours.  There may have been transportation help from Janet, but I'm only assuming.  I didn't feel like staying there so I kept going, and made it to Indian Grave Gap around 6:00.  Janet was going to pick hikers up from here tomorrow morning to take them to the bluegrass festival in town.  I checked my cell phone, and of course, no signal, surprise, surprise.  Apparently Verizon is what you need on the AT, and I'm not a customer.  So I'm not going back into Erwin for that festival either.  Oh well.  I filled up my water bladder at the road crossing, and raced the last 3+ miles uphill toward Beauty Spot.  The sun was starting to set as I reached the top of the mountain.  I came out of the woods, and into the expansive rolling meadows at the summit, at an elevation of 4333 feet.  There were some other hikers tenting on the summit as well, and they already had a nice fire going.  I quickly set up my tent, with the door facing east, so I would get a nice sunrise.  A photographer from Netherlands came up to talk to us for a while.  He had some great pictures to show us, and also told us he had seen a few bears in the nearby woods.  I would end up sleeping with my food inside my tent.  We stayed up talking around the fire for a long time after dark, but it was fun.  The clouds broke for a bit and the wind died down.  Under the stars I could see in all directions from my campsite.  It's incredible how much light is produced at night down in the cities and towns.

Tenting on Beauty Spot.