Walking In Circles

Where I've Been the Last Few Days

Well, it started out leaving North Carolina for good on an 11.5 mile walk.  Then my sister and my neice joined me for a 7.3 mile walk in a very watery place (My guidebook does say "stream."). And finally 8.0 miles across White Rocks Mountain.

17.2 Miles to Greasy Creek Gap

I had thought this was going to be a day of walking very tiny circles while tending to Brewster the rabbit, but he passed away at 5:30AM so by 6AM I was on the trail for a long loop.

Ms. PJ showed up at a forestry road and walked through Beauty Spot to the next road at Beauty Spot Gap.  Despite heavy clouds all day and a few sprinkles, it was a wonderful day for a walk.  The trail continued over Unaka Mountain at 5,180 feet and finally to Greasy Creek Gap.

13.1 Miles Over Bald Mountain

Bald Mountain is truly beautiful, overlooking several lakes.  The weather has been nice, if slightly cool, but tomorrow the rain is supposed to roll in.  Again.  For several days.  Again.

Appalachian Trail experts suggest not starting too early in the season, because the rain can be disheartening and lead thru hikers to quit.  I can see why.

Sister joined me for three miles, carrying her new baby- woot!

And, while we were walking, elsewhere in Raleigh a pedestrian was hit and killed by a car.

16.1 Miles to Another No-name Campground

  Here's Anita again.  You remember, Anita the ninja walker?  Today she's Anita the 5K runner, earning her green legs for real.  (For those out of the ww'ers discussion board circle, on the board you can show three symbols next to your name, and the running symbol is a pair of green legs.)

We had Anita teleported to the Shelton graves, and her little green legs flew over the trail to this no-name campground.  The Sheltons, by the way, were a family that sided with the Union and were killed by Confederate forces as the traveled to their North Carolina home.

Before I saw Anita, I happened across another guy that can't tell the difference between a walker and a ho.  Actually, I didn't give him a chance- he just about ran me down on a narrow shoulder and I screamed at him to scram before he had a chance to get into whatever conversation it was he wanted to have.  But seriously, the ones who are looking for a hooker are always driving huge new trucks.  I guess if you want to know a man is behaving, you should send him out in a Civic.

16.2 Miles to Mt. Love

There was no walk yesterday.  I woke up on time but my body said, "This is not a good idea."  I listened.  So, today:

Mt. Love goes all the way up to 6,446 feet!  Ms. P.J. came in from a forestry road near Clingman's Dome (Ssssh! The road isn't open until 01 April.)and walked with me to the Mt. Love summit before returning to her car.  And I forgot to take any pictures!!!  I do have some pictures from my walk before she showed up.

13.1 Miles Over Thunderhead Mountain

The trail today goes over Thunderhead Mountain.  A certain part of the trail is open to horses, as I mentioned yesterday, so my nephew and his Daddy paid me a visit.

On a totally different side of the mountain, Joy made her own tracks.

 

Apparently deep in the woods with deep snow, this is a dangerous thing.  But Joy points out that you can see there that someone else already did it, and is there a dead body layin' there?

Why no, there is not a dead body.  So it must be safe!  Plus, Joy has spiffy new snowshoe equipment...

...that gets her to places like this:

Joy has tons more beautiful pictures that are supposedly going be on her blog soon.  Meanwhile, she has not informed me how many miles her off-trail shenanigans covered.  Joy??

6.5 Miles to Wallace Gap

And it was cold at Wallace Gap!  Weather under freezing again and back to two pants, two coats and two hats.  I'll be happy when this changes!  Meanwhile, sneaking in quietly on kitty-cat paws, Anita joined me at Rock Gap for the last mile of the day.

A lot of us dream of the day when we can see our toes.  Well, Anita can see her ankles.  That's how she can be so sneaky that I didn't know she was there until the next day.

Left and right...

     

Jus walkin' along...

  

And one mile done!

  

WW'er Friends 4Ever!

Today was 12.25 miles over Albert Mountain with ninja-walker Anita and Joy Ms. Smiley.  They doubled up to cost me $24.50!

The beginning of the Appalachian Trail crossing military training groups, so it was only fitting that we took our walking to Camp Lejeune.  Up there near Springer Mountain it's snake eaters jumping out of trees.  At Lejeune, it's live fire on a beautiful spring morning.  Full story and lots of pictures here.

Another Easy Four Miles

Today was another easy four miles to the Blue Mountain Shelter.  Crossing a road this morning I had a relatively common experience for me: I was mistaken for a prostitute.  Between the clothes, the shoes, the mine-and-their's Blackberrys, the GPS/HRM, the digital camera and sometimes an iPod, whew!, I am not exactly a sign of economic desperation.  So what I usually want to say is, "Look, I'm wearing about $1,000; why would I do you for twenty bucks?"  But potential Johns make me nervous so generally all I say is, "No."  Maybe I should have said, "Hey!  Do you want to see my totally gnarly toenail?"

Joining me on my walk today was Sue G..  She was taking a back-woods break when I ran into wanna-be John, otherwise she'd have boxed in his ears using her mad.... some kind of martial arts skillz, I'm not sure what she does.

Sue also has all ten toenails firmly affixed to her feet (yeh, there's some envy here), so after my four mile hobble (there's $4.00 to the AT Conservancy), she be-bobbed right on back to Carlsbad, California and down the stairs to the beach.  Least we think everything is fun and games out there in sunshine land, Sue reports that this stair case maddeningly has a different number of stairs on each flight.  Sue, that would drive me mad too, but it does make me feel like we're even on the toenails thing.

 

 

Sue sent in a whole set of pictures from her walk as well as some really interesting information about Carlsbad- all pictures and in her own words here. 

6.5 Miles to Justus Mountain

Got walking an hour earlier this morning.  The overnight rain dripping in the dark was a little eerie, and then just as sunrise was completed it started to sleet.  Fortunately I was wearing my very special anti-sleet hat:

Or baklava?  Is it a baklava if it doesn't have the three holes?  I don't know... it just works.

The trail goes up slightly from the logging road, then down to a forestry road where someone special was there to meet me.

That's right: my little tiny niece!  She went up over Sassafras Mountain and down the other side to the next forestry road; 3.5 miles.  Transit provided by my sister, who had to drive so far around Sassafras Mountain that she ended up taking this picture:

Now that looks a lot like the Central Coast of California to me.  And I don't see any sign of sleet.  But that's just the kind of easy life my sister has.  That little tough kid there, on the other hand, she just earned $3.50 that will be donated to the AT Conservancy.

I continued on to the top of Justus Mountain.  Winds are 11 mph and the wind chill temperature is 13 degrees F.  Cold night tonight.