What a difference a day makes! Blew itself out last night such that by 5:30 am there were a million stars above.
From dead bones 12 hours before to reinvigorated again we quickly broke camp and hiked under the star canopy and up and up onto another mountain top for the sunrise. This was a day to die for,, perfect in every way.
Ate breakfast on the top to the sun's coming up over the seemingly endless range of peaks in view then hiked pretty hard all morning.
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| Breakfast on top |
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| Plenty of rock screed today made for tricky hiking with a loaded pack. one wrong step and ..... |
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| The Mountain Dudes |
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| Harold and Albert |
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| Dan holed up |
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| Sam, Dan, and two young guys from Florida. |
Eventually coming across a logging service road where we saw two old pickups making their way up with an old mountain man in each. Looked like "shiner's" we both said. But to our amazement, when we got to the top of the gap after a long pull there they were setup with a campfire going and a huge picnic smorgasbord set up. It was like bees to honey. We were on it pronto. Drinks, cutie nectarines, bananas, and on it went. Albert and his buddy Harold both in their mid eighties, one with a bad case of Parkinson's, but both come there for the day like they said they do every few days. "Yeah we get to meet people from around the world" they go "doctors lawyers banker types, millionaires and lots of regulars". They seemed to count us two amongst the latter which felt good.
Roamed all over these mountains when younger they said, told stories of bear huntin all over dem Hills out yonder. Grew up in a holler over there with no electric or running water, and so it went Much like sitting with our dad. Oh and it wouldn't be right without a big ole hound dog which they had there on a chain, Albert said be didn't know just how old ole Buck was but he reckoned he weighed bout 115lbs. About had to drag ourselves out of there but not until they loaded us down with a goody bag to go while apologizing several times over for their buddy Jack who comes to grill hotdogs on the fire but hadn't made it up yet today.
Took all the will power we had to move on. Could hear ole Buck howling all the way up Tray Mountain as we pushed north.
Half way up we see a set of fresh legs humping up and gaining on us. Turns out it's a young quiet guy back on the trail after a night at a hotel in a nearby town. Seems there's quite the enterprising community of people associated with the trail and it's hikers. Shuttling people down to their homes for a meal and maybe a shower and hostel to sleep at. Sounds like prices vary from $20 to 35 bucks. Wonder if they are star rated and I could talk Jane into the AT that way?:) So far Dan and I are sticking to the Mountain man thing and showering when it rains or in a mountain stream, what a pucker up that is.
Turns out we fell into pace with the guy coming up and hiked together the rest of the day . Sam just graduated from college in Virginia and is taking a 6 mo. hiking break to Maine before going on with "life". Wants to be a PT specialist. My quick take is he'll be well suited for that field or anything to do with helping people. Couldn't find a more kind hearted quiet, caring kind of person. ( Well maybe I do know of a couple- my sons) Works summer camps with little kids each year and just loves the study of anatomy.
The three of us are now stealth camping on a mountain overlook where we were treated to an amazing private vista and sunset over dinner. I'm hanging rain fly-less, under an amazing star canopy now counting shooting stars and making wishes - three so far.
Funnies: Rolling out onto the trail predawn this morning: I asked Dan the usual; Well how did you sleep in your rabbit hole go last night? And ole Mr. Positive goes, "GREAT" Now I'm thinking, Really? Because I know his ground bag is all but defunct and I could have sworn I was woken up by a commotion in there last night. Asked him about noise and a light flashing around and he goes "oh yeah except for that! Thought I was dreaming about a soft fuzzy thing crawling around over me and woke me up a couple times to turn on the light but couldn't find anything. Then I woke up because something was biting my finger. Jumped up, turned on the light and spotted a big ole fat mouse and went for him. But he was quick, kept running under my stuff as I tried to squash him. Eventual he got out through a crack I left open in the entrance. After that I did have trouble falling back to sleep". All I could say was, yeah it sounds like it was great!
