Levi flying a kite while JB and Rolex look on
Hog Back Ridge Shelter to Spivey Gap campground 17 miles
I managed to get through another night without my hammock tent falling apart. Getting up this morning, I can feel the vibes from Cyclone and I think we're wearing each other thin. We took off this morning a little later than usual but we're trying to get to Spivey Gap so that we don’t have far the next day to get into Uncle Johnny's Hostel where we’ve decided to stay. We met “Rain Check” and “Wild Hair” last night and some other cat named “Lone Wolf;” only, Wild Hair was saying there's already a Lone Wolf who's been hiking the trail for a long time so I could feel the tension rising. Nothing came of it, “Lone Wolf “ seems like he might be one of those “Hiking Homeless” guys anyway.
After more breakfast bars, we started cruising along. From looking at the elevation profiles on the map, we knew we were going to have a few nice little climbs. There's been this bad vibe between me and Cyclone and it's starting to rub off on Rolex too. He really bugs me when he starts talking about time. It makes me feel like I'm going too slowly and it pisses me off. The fact that this bothers me is not what really bothers me. The fact that he knows this bothers me and still says it all the time is what really sets me off. I should try to stop talking about our spats on the blogs. Nobody benefits from it.
We stopped for a moment at one of the shelters before Spivey Gap and Cyclone commented on the time which led Rolex to say something about, “isn’t it nice to have gone 10 miles and it’s only noon?” or something like that. I got so pissed I told them to split. I don't even want to hike with them anymore. Cyclone says something that leads Rolex to say something and then I want to knock both of them out; however, I know if I got physical with either one of them, they'd both just go home. I think Cyclone's already half a step from leaving the trail anyway. His knees are in a lot of pain and his tooth is becoming a problem. All it would take is one thing to go wrong like me punching someone. I could be wrong; but, that's my impression right now. At some points in the day, I could care less whether they stay or get off. I'm going to go as far as I can on this trip and I may even stay on the trail after we reach our original time limit to try and finish if we don't make it.
On one of the balds I caught them again. They were watching Levi, who we’ve been running into since Fontana Dam, pull something out of his pack. He had a kite. It seems he’s been flying a kite on every bald he summits. It was cool watching him fly it. I filmed him as he crashed it into the ground once; but soon he was flying it in grand style, spinning and diving it like a pro. We were brothers again for a minute as we watched him play. We all like Levi, he’s a funny guy who wears a kilt when he hikes. I am thinking I would like to get a kilt too, I’ve been hiking in only my underwear for chafing reasons and I think a kilt would solve that. Not to mention, I wouldn’t have to worry about offending the Girl Scouts we pass on weekends.
We made the descent into Spivey Gap where we found a suitable campsite after the usual intellectualizing about location in the site selection process. We could argue about ANYTHING, I swear. I didn’t want to camp at the main campsites because they were very close to a stream and I thought that the Mosquitoes would eat us alive as soon as the sun went down. We moved uphill to another campsite but it was clear that they were just placating my “unjustified” concern. It felt to me like they thought I was just trying to be difficult.
We pitched the tents, I started a fire and Cyclone cooked. One of our recent trail buddies, Kevin (whom I like to call "Barbarossa" even though he hasn’t taken a shine to it) came rolling in while we were cooking and setting up. He decided to stay there with us. I showed Rolex how to make a figure 4 dead fall with sticks and some fishing line and it was pretty cool. We left it set up with some peanut butter to see if we might catch a mouse or something. We’re all edgy; one more anxious day until we get into a town and we can chill.
We've decided to take a "zero day" in Erwin so we can see Indiana Jones. The hammock is still holding up with my lashing but I asked my pops to send out one of the other ones. I'll pick it up in town tomorrow afternoon and mail the other one back. The fire was nice, we played some guitar and sang and made it to bed early. We want to get out early so we can get to town at a reasonable hour. Cyclone has a conference call to make by 2PM
David AKA "Jukebox"
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