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June 27 2001

Distance Traveled: 12.8 (+2.5 in side trails)     Total Miles: 43.2 (45.6)

Location: Carter Gap Shelter.

Entry:

Today's mileage was 15.4 because of the 1.1 mile road walk from Rainbow Springs and a 1.4 mile round trip to see the John Wasilik Memorial Tree. I hadn't seen the tree in 20+ years, and it was neat revisiting something I remember from childhood. Unfortunately the plaque was gone and idiots are still carving their names on it - but luckily not as many as there used to be. The tree is still alive.

Past that to Rock Gap Shelter where there were ton's of bear reports including stolen food bag reports. In the register someone had started a cool hiker lexicon. I wish I had time to copy it. Stuff like:

Terrain Profile - The biggest bunch of lies ever put out by the Appalachian Trail Conference. Always under reports severity. 

Anyway, I proceeded down the trail hoping to catch a bear picture, but didn't see one the whole day. The weather started off beautiful and I was hoping to have a nice view from Albert Mountain. But once I got up there, there was a storm coming in, and a group of Outward Bound hikers. So I didn't spend much time up there. BTW the Albert Mountain Terrain Profile doesn't lie at all. It actually does this:

It was bad going up from the north, and the going down the south side in a rain storm was worse. I hit my butt twice on the decent. Once I got to the bottom, the storm really got going. I decided to push on to Carter Gap Shelter and dry out. 

When I got to Carter Gap Shelter, there were two fellows there from Florida - a Chiropractor and an Army intelligence analyst for CENCOM. They were nice guys out having a week hiking vacation around Standing Indian. They informed me there were lots of bear reports in the journal here, and the guys they met here earlier had actually  seen one right outside the shelter. So I decided to stay inside the shelter tonight and take all the proper precautions.

I never saw a bear, but in the morning stuff was knocked over around the shelter, food bags were fine though. Today (28 June) will be a light day, only 11.7 miles, time to rest! I need it too, the 27th I was feeling like crap most of the day. 

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