Tri-Corner Knob Shelter
After my difficulties a couple days ago today pretty much erased that. I woke feeling refreshed and happy. The morning started out in more pine woods which had me tickled pink. The concentration of trees dying, decomposing, sprouting, reaching up for the sky left me feeling excited. No matter where I looked I saw the woods in motion from one state of being, all of them covered in any green moss the mind could conjuer.
Much of today was spent walking along sharp ridgelines with a narrow dirt path almost impossibly holding to the top just wide enough to walk. As always this gave me a continous scrolling scene of green, blue, purple and gray mountians to look at.
After a while I came upon a water shut-off valve that was inexplicatly sticking out from between a seemingly unaffected m
ass of root. I looked up hill to see a massive stone retaining wall. After that it was a short walk into Newfound Gap.
Newfound Gap was packed with tourists who parked their cars to look at the rather nice outlook, use the restrooms, take their picture next to the TN/NC border sign, and move on. I came upon Many Names, SnackBreak, and Renassance Man. We all sat on a rock wall and chatted. Just as I arrived Apple, the trail angel with the "Spaceship" arrived. He couldn't provided any trail magic because it seems you need a permit to do that in a National Park but he was there to chat and was tracking our progress on his laptop. I wonder what he is doing with that data?
I spent my time relaxing, enjoying the view, reading the interpative signs, using a privy that didn't involve a handfull of bark mulch and did involve handwashing. Also in a way we sorta turned out to be an attraction ourselves with tourists asking us what the AT is, when did we start, etc.
Also amongst the group was Mind Shatter or Shatter for short. He is, as we found out later, one of the three paid employees who maintain the 70 or so miles of the AT in Smokies. He was immediatly a lightning rod of through hiker attention; energenic, clean looking, friendly and knowledgable. He was heading down that same strech of trail so I spent much of the afternon with him. He was wearing the most unique decorations around his knees.
Continued in next post....
2 comments:
It really jazzed me to read about you at Newfound Gap--I can see it in my mind. The last time I was there was nearly 30 years ago. It was November and was snowing with big huge fat flakes and was amazingly beautiful (and uncrowded!) I do so love the Smokeys! Marjorie
how does one cover 20 miles in a day, and spend time just sitting around talking? I could do one or the other, not both. The only thing I can figure is it was a downhill day.
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