Orchestral Snoring and lots of marshmallows

Throne with a View


A.Rufus Shelter to Brown Fork Shelter Stopping for breakfast and showers at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) 17 miles

It was a tough day. Sleep was jacked up too. Everyone in the shelter was snoring loudly. This normally wouldn't phase me one damn bit; however, I happened to be sleeping next to MadMtMike who kept poking me all night to try and get me to stop snoring. Actually, he was trying to get everyone to stop but I was the one next to him. I need to get him some earplugs or something. All night I'd be awakened by his poking finger, even when Longtoe, who was on the other side of me, was snoring, Mike would poke me. I finally grumbled, "Mike, it isn't me!" At one point, I heard him yell out, "OK! Everyone stop snoring!!" I think it was answered by Cubit letting out a long, gurgling blast. I was just laughing, except for the fact that I couldn't get any sleep while Mike's poking finger was at work. Shortly after that I heard Mike making a bunch of noise; a cacophony of zippers and rustles and grunts. Some time later I rolled over and he was gone. That cat split the shelter to go sleep in the grass and he didn't even have a tent! Wow! We shouldn't have fed him all those marshmallows. In the morning he was pissin’ and monain’. At least it wasn't just me, everyone was snoring. What do you expect? We're roughing it!

We got on the trail to go down the 0.8 mile to the NOC where we had breakfast and I tried to upload GPS logs, but they wouldn't work. I was getting really irritated at the situation. We packed up and went to go take some showers. I washed some of my clothes while I was in the shower and Cyclone was on a conference call. Our clothes dried in the sun and we got on the trail late, around noon. It was a mother of a hike too; the hottest day yet. I bonked hard on the Cheoah Bald climb. I hate it when that happens. You're chuggin' along and suddenly it seems like the world is about to end and your chest is exploding and you can't breathe and sweat is pouring out of you like you just jumped in a lake. We took a little break and I gathered my composure before the summit

Later that day we got the marvelous opportunity to climb a hill that was unbelievably steep. You could reach out and touch the ground in front of you as you climbed. Cyclone and Rolex kept calling out for switchbacks. Cyclone was trying to analyze at what steepness of grade the trail maintainers thought it was appropriate to start using switchbacks.

We finally got in to Brown Fork Shelter and it was packed. There must have been twenty tents around the shelter. We arrived after nightfall and I set up my hammock in the dark while Cyclone and Rolex cooked dinner; spaghetti again. We've really got this Spaghetti thing down pat. They have been sleeping in the shelter mostly and I have been out in my hammock tent. I don't have a nice, thick pad to put under my sleeping bag so I'd rather freeze in my tent than sleep on hard wood floor in the shelter, especially after the Snoring Incident last night.

We broke out the rest of the marshmallows and Cyclone and I had toasted, white dessert while Rolex talked to his girlfriend on his cell phone out by the privy; which, by the way, had no walls. All it had was a roof; just a throne in the middle of the woods with a great view of the mountains, the trees, the birds, oh yeah and all of the hikers cooking breakfast. Hey! Somebody pass me the paper will ya?

David AKA "Jukebox"

Website:
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Blog:
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Film:
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The Overshooting Shelter, Blow-down Blues

There is a trail in there somewhere!!


After the Clearing process


It was a cold, cold morning, again. I slept amazingly well; however. I think I’m getting the hang of this hammock; no pun intended. We got packed up, got water and took off. We shouldn’t get water in the morning. It takes too damn long

Trailfox was ahead of us and we didn't know it. She must have left at like 5:30 AM. We got a kind of late start due to the water gathering, but we were cruising along at a good clip for us. Footing was very slippery and we finally caught up with all of the people who had left the shelter before us. At some point, me and Cubit took off. She's a pretty fast hiker and I was huffin' and puffin' before long. I kept asking her to slow down. She has these ridiculous hiker legs and her pack is something like 25 pounds. For a short girl, she somehow steps it out and moves very fast.

The wind and rain over the past few days had been pretty crazy and there were blow-downs everywhere. A “Blow-Down” is when heavy rains loosen the soil and the combination of loose soil and heavy winds sends a tree crashing to the ground, lifting out its entire root structure including the boulders that the roots have grown around over the years. It’s a marvel to see and frightening to hear in the middle of the night. It sounds like a train wreck with explosions as one big tree dominoes the smaller ones it hits on the way down. You'd be hiking long and suddenly an entire tree was laying along the trail, impassable. You'd have to bushwhack it up crazy steep slopes to get around it, while slippin and falling and sliding back down through leaves and bugs and mud and snakes and stuff. Then you'd be alright for a while. There would be small blow-downs you could step over, and then you'd be huffin up a big hill and SLAM! You run into a monster blow-down.

Cyclone and Rolex, we found out later, spent a half an hour clearing the first one that me and Cubit just scrambled through. They cut it up and peeled it off and threw it down the slope. They have "before and after" pictures but Rolex left the Sony cable adapter to his camera up at his school and we can't get any pictures off of the camera until we get a hold of one of those.

Somehow, Cubit and I caught up with Trailfox . We got into a killer pace and totally missed the shelter we were all going to meet at. We hiked all the way down to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) which is this pretty cool rafting center on the Chattooga River with an outfitter, convenience store, lodging, restaurant, etc.. It’s right on the trail. Normally that would have been cool; however, I knew we'd have to walk back up the 300 feet in elevation to the shelter, so we ate dinner and picked up some marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers and brought them back up with us for the fire we had texted them to make. For dinner, Cubit and I had pizza at the NOC but it sucked. I should have known it would

After we got back up the hill, having to climb back over a few blow-downs that we had already negotiated, I decided to sleep in the shelter so I wouldn't have to set up my tent. I stayed up late watching over the fire and trying to play this E minor blues progression that was in my head for a few hours before retiring to the shelter which was packed with five other people: Cubit, Just Lyle, MadMtMike and Longtoe. I was in between Mike and Longtoe which will be pertinent to tomorrow's post.

David AKA "Jukebox"

Website:
http://www.brotherproof.com
Blog:
http://brotherproof.blogspot.com
Pictures:
http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproof
Film:
http://www.youtube.com/wbaf1
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/brotherproof
David's Website:
http://www.davidpatrone.com