TRAIL DAY 20
Fri, Mar 11, 2016 AWOL notes tell me I met “Quicksand” this morning. The Guide tells me also that there were some fairly steep ups and downs this day. I remember having pretty good traction for the trail – that is, I was moving along and making pretty good miles without unusual fatigue. Pictures tell me it was an off-and-on, overcast-and-clearing kind of day but sufficiently warm for even short sleeves. Around 10:00 that morning, not far from Licklog Gap (say what?), I came upon Journeyman whom I had last seen at Top of Georgia Hostel, 8 days before. He was looking well and carrying his carved walking stick. I would see more of these along the way including one with a snake wrapped all around it, head toward the top.
Regarding walk assist, some use a single trekking pole, some a single stick like Journeyman and the majority, like me, used two poles.
I used my poles hard to help me up steep dirt trails. I would drive them into the ground up ahead and muscle my upper body and pack past an imaginary center line between the poles and then with arms now behind me, I would push off the poles helping waist and legs past that same imaginary line thus getting a two-fold assist from the poles. They were an invaluable help with balance crossing streams on stepping stones or logs and in a jumble of rocks or boulders. The metal tips, which extreme purists covered with a rubber end to prevent scratching the rocks, had a sharp 1/5″ diameter flat tip which could be placed carefully in the smallest crevice or ledge of a rock allowing for much needed support in a dangerous descent or climb.
How Journeyman used his large (and heavy) pole in such situations, I don’t know. Perhaps its greater reach allowed for other methods of maintaining stability in difficult sections.
Journeyman was a faster hiker than I so he went on up ahead, polite deference having no place in a hike of this magnitude.
Three hours later, I would come upon him again. I was on a fairly steep climb with no other hikers around as was most always the case. As I approached the top I heard a voice from high up above a wooded incline to my right. Then silence, then the voice again. I kept climbing until I eventually came to the summit and Journeyman came down a side trail from a viewing tower. He said that he had just been on a phone call with his wife and had received some amazing news that he told me in a quiet, modest voice.
North Carolina had submitted Journeyman to the national social worker association as their nominee for Social Worker of the Year – and he won! He would have to go to Washington, D.C. on June 12th to receive an award – and, of course, deliver a speech.
I was very pleased for him and honored to be his acquaintance and thru-hiker friend.
He knew that I was going to turn 75 on June 4th and he was going to be honored in the same month. We each expressed our desire to be present for the other’s significant event – and I suspect something within each of us knew that there’d be a lot of water over the damn by then and who knew what would come to pass – but our intentions were spot on and comforting while they lasted.
Again, Journeyman journeyed on ahead of me and I climbed the tower where he had gotten such good news. What I got was extraordinary views.
At the foot of the mountain was the Wesser Bald Shelter off to the left. It was late afternoon when I arrived and Journeyman decided to call it a day here. I had other issues compelling me to carry on in spite of the difficult, some might say “technical,” descent ahead. I wanted to get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, “the NOC,” to mail my phone to Medtek Mobile for repair and I wanted to be sure to be there in the morning thinking offices might close by noon on Saturday.
It was a difficult descent requiring focus. Perhaps like Albert Mountain on the climb, this was the first significant descent for a NOBO. Once off the steep decline, the goal was making tracks and just keepin’ on keepin’ on until I made it to the A. Rufus Morgan Shelter, precisely one mile from the NOC. I stopped not far from the shelter to get water as Theo, as always, took the pause to rest.
The Reading guys were already at the shelter and set up. I took a spot at the far left looking in the shelter and took my supper gear to a nearby log to lean against while cooking. It took a little thought when preparing to eat to be sure you had all you needed. I might have the stove, the bandana to wipe my mouth and the chamois to wipe a dish but maybe I forgot the water or had the water but forgot the chamois or my spoon which I ended up carrying in my front-right pocket.
I had gotten in the habit of sending my GPS signal to family and friends at supper time so I may have already begun to keep my SPOT device in the supper bag. I’d pay for this practice later.
I fed Theo first as usual and then had my supper soon after we got into camp. He knew that my supper was mine and seldom bothered me as I ate.
As darkness fell, so did I – into bed after my longest hike to date.
Day #20 Wayah Bald Shelter > A. Rufus Morgan Shelter 15.5 miles