Gimme A Sign

MST – Day 67 – 7-21-11 – Highway 13 to Highway 11 – Albrittons Crossroads – 24.2 Miles

Today’s heat index was forecast to reach 104.  John and I met at our ending point (Hills Grove Holiness Church) just as the sky was lightening, left a car, and drove to our start point about 38 miles away in Shine, NC (Hwy 13).  We hoped to finish by 11:30 a.m. to beat the heat.  I felt conflicted about whether to do the ride or not.  I had driven a very long way and spent the night, but was it safe to do this in such hot conditions?  John’s the kind of guy who will honor a commitment even if it’s unpleasant.  Should I just let him off the hook?  I needed a sign.  

Well, the morning started out reasonably cool so maybe it would be okay.  And John brought his recumbent bike, much easier on him.  So at 7:20 a.m. I started out in the lead because I had the turn-by-turn directions.  The road was flat and there were very few cars.  John was great about calling out “car back” when a car was approaching to pass us.  

I never tire of seeing these old buildings and farm equipment  - reminiscent of my growing up.  I didn’t live on a farm, but several of my uncles were farmers (mostly tobacco).  I lived just down the road and I spent a lot of time at their places.  I never was required to work in tobacco during the summer, but all my male cousins and friends and my brother did, and I can even remember my mom going to help out from time to time when I was very young.  I remember tobacco slides pulled by mules, hand-tying the leaves to the sticks, hanging them in the barns to cure.  A by-gone era. 

Flowers on a tobacco plant

Entering the town of LaGrange, I felt I was working harder than I should, and John said my rear tire appeared to be flattening.  We stopped to check it out and sure enough, it was losing air.  I had an extra tube but no pump.  John had a pump but the connection was not the right size.  Well, maybe if we speed up we can get it over with. 

We were pedaling through a pretty countryside and the air was heating up, but we didn’t feel the need to stop as often as yesterday.  On a road lined with tall corn on both sides, an enormous piece of farm equipment appeared around a bend, with wide-set tires spreading across the pavement – looked like something out of Transformers.  It could have passed over a house.  The farmer waved and chugged on by.

At Living Waters Fellowship Church we stopped to fill up water bottles from spigots at the front of the building.  We knew about this from a note in Scot Ward’s book.  He notes many water sources on the road route and this is the first time I had used one.  It’s great information to have. 

My tire was getting flatter – what to do?  We kept at it, not stopping to take photos, but after about 8 more miles I decided that I couldn’t continue.  We stopped at Jimmy D’s restaurant at Albritton’s Crossroads, a busy place on a weekday morning as they prepared their hot food bar for the lunch rush for local workers (no fast food chains out here). 

We went inside and sat in the air conditioning to determine what to do.   It was 10:00 a.m. and we were about 13 miles from our end point.  John offered to continue on alone to his vehicle, but I was concerned about him biking alone in the heat.  Looked like it was time to bum a ride.

I asked a fellow waiting on his takeout order if he would take John back to his van while I stayed behind with the bikes.  The patron couldn’t help us but suggested we talk to the owner, Jimmy.  Hitching a ride 13 miles in the country is a big request, but Jimmy stopped his work, loaded our bikes in his pickup and both of us in the front seat and took us back to Hills Grove Holiness Church – the truest kind of trail angel.  He reminded me of my cousin Sammy (one of those boys growing up on the tobacco farm), kind, friendly, willing to help out a neighbor or a stranger in any way. 

John and I called it quits - no sense in trying to pump up the tire and complete the route.  God thought it was too hot for us to be out there and I was not inclined to argue.  As John drove me back to my car, we talked about what makes people engage in outdoor adventures and, conversely, what prevents people from them.  Our conclusion:  it’s not so much in your physical ability as it is your mental attitude.  You've got to be okay with being physically uncomfortable when working towards a goal.

I turned the air on full blast and headed for home.  Along the way I passed tobacco fields and workers pulling the bottom leaves, wearing long sleeves, long pants, bandannas over noses and mouths. 

“If you want to keep going, you’ve got to keep going.” ~ John Jaskolka, age 82.

Do You Get "The" Discount?

MST – Day 66 – 7-20-11 – Hills Grove Holiness Church to Pleasant Hill AME Zion Church – 22.2 Miles

Wanted:  New biking partner for road sections of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail east of Goldsboro, NC. 

John Jaskolka, FMST board member, trail builder and maintainer, hiking and biking fool, responded to my email in spite of the fact that it was mid-July and hotter than…well, you know.  John is busier in retirement than he ever was in his career, I’ll bet.  He lives in Eastern NC and his flexibility allowed me to get some more road miles in during the week rather than encroaching on Jim’s limited weekend time.  So John and I made plans.

We met on this Wednesday afternoon at Pleasant Hill AME Zion Church about 8 miles west of New Bern, where Jim and I had started our New Bern weekend back in March.  I was surprised to see John’s car loaded with a hybrid bike.  He normally rides a recumbent bike, but he thought he’d try out the hybrid today. 

 

We drove the bikes over to Hills Grove Holiness Church off of Burkett Road and cautiously started out.  Did I mention it was hot?  At least our route wasn’t complicated - Old U.S. 70 most of the way, the flattest, straightest road yet, paralleling RR tracks on the way to New Bern.  

We soon found out that we had to share the road with trucks coming and going from the Tuscarora landfill, where an expansion is underway (so LOTS of trucks).  They were much larger than dump trucks but the drivers were very conscientious of us itty bitty cyclists. 

We also passed the Tuscarora Game Lands lookout tower, which Scot Ward’s book notes to “climb for good views.”  We didn’t stop, but John said he didn’t think climbing the tower was allowed.

Local farms were generally flourishing with corn, tobacco, soybeans and cotton.  

Healthy corn

Tobacco

Cotton

The heat was so intense, John and I had to stop every 3-5 miles to drink water and cool off.  At a convenience store in Cove City we stopped for Gatorade.  I stood in front of the air conditioner for so long I thought I’d have to start paying rent. 

I could tell John’s hybrid was uncomfortable for him because he kept shaking out his hands, not used to having them in the position of leaning on them.  My recurring thought was, “How are we going to do this for 40 miles tomorrow?”  But we paced ourselves, stopped often, and cheered when Pleasant Hill AME Zion Church came into view.  We made our plan to meet at the crack of dawn tomorrow and hopefully beat the heat.

After John and I parted ways, I drove back to the Cove City convenience store for more Gatorade (preparing for tomorrow) and chatted with the owner (also named John, and not to be confused with his son, John Paul, who was running the cash register on our first stop).  We had a nice visit and he commented on how he thinks it’s always important to say hello at a country store, because you want people to remember you if you ever are in need of help.  Good advice all the way around, I think.

I also stopped at the lookout tower and, sure enough, they don’t want you going up there.

I checked into my little hotel and blasted the AC, got cleaned up and went out for something to eat.  At the end of my meal I asked for the check and the sweet young waitress asked me if I get “the” discount.  Now, would that be the discount for being over a certain age or for being an amazing active outdoor woman?  You decide.

Cycling is like church. Many attend, but few understand. ~Jim Burlant

Some People Think Mudslide Means a Cocktail

SB6K Hike – 7-16-11 – Woody Ridge Trail/Black Mountain Crest Trail/Colbert Ridge Trail – 10.2 Miles

Another crazy Sherpa hike with the Bergs – didn’t we just do this?  Several objectives this time out:  bagging three SB6K peaks and getting in shape for hiking to the summit of Mount Whitney in September.  Yeah, yeah, that MST thing is still going but there’s so much other fun stuff to do…

Seven hikers drove through the misty morning chanting, “Please don’t pour down rain today.”  It may have been steaming hot in the Piedmont but you can count on the Black Mountains of NC to be cool and often damp.  We set up our short shuttle and started up the Woody Ridge Trail.  The woods were very wet and the breeze shook the trees and made it “rain” but no big deal. 

Steven’s duct tape gator enhancers.  He’s not taking any chances with wet feet.

The Woody Ridge Trail starts off a little steep, gets more steep, then gets ridiculous.  And still nature’s simplest offerings are amazingly beautiful: 

Turk’s cap lily (warning:  lots of these throughout the post)

Indian pipe, always a great discovery, a ghostly plant that lacks chlorophyll

Dampness highlights the spiderwebs

Rhododendron bustin' out everywhere today

About 1.7 miles up, after I realized that crawling up over boulders was not going to be unusual, we caught our breath beside this 30-foot rock wall.  David M told a story of hiking up this trail once, seeing how difficult it was, camping here overnight and then walking back down the next morning.  Then Jeff says it’s about to get steep for real.

A beautiful view, I’m told

More Turk’s cap lilies - I can't resist photo- graphing them.  Unlike most wildflowers, they are huge bright and showy.  And they have freckles like me!

How tough was this trail?  It took us 2.5 hours to climb 2.2 miles up to the intersection with the Black Mountain Crest Trail.  Normally this crowd hikes at 2+ mph.  The wet conditions made us cautious but nobody was goofing off.  It was just plain hard work getting up there. 

Which made the lunch break so satisfying, resting on a big sloping rock, whiteout views.  Everyone else had been here except me and they described what I was missing in glowing terms.  Will I hike up here again someday to see it?  Probably.

Sitting still for a little while got us chilled enough to put on the warm fuzzies – Steven and Carolyn

Three SB6K peaks today:  Celo Knob, Gibbes Mountain and Winter Star.  We turned right on the BMCT and hiked about a mile out to the manway to Celo Knob.  (Jamie and David M chose to continue on the route and we’d catch up with them at Deep Gap.)  The manway was faint but Jeff and his GPS got us to the summit.  In celebration, Steven played taps on his recorder and Carolyn joined in on harmonica.

 

One down, two to go.  The fun is only just beginning.

We backtracked on the Black Mountain Crest Trail, continued westward past our intersection with Woody Ridge, and reached the point for our off-trail scramble to Gibbes Mountain.  Jeff and I were going up – who else was in?  Everybody.  No manway this time, just blind faith in the almighty Jeff.  We ducked, crawled and crept our way to the top and stood on a big rock that he declared the summit.  Then we ducked, crawled and slid our way back down, dirty, muddy, covered in leaf litter.  Once you give yourself up to it, it’s kinda fun to get dirty.  This detour took over 30 minutes. 

Two down, one to go, a-quiver with anticipation. 

The Black Mountain Crest Trail is a roller coaster of ups and downs, rock scrambles, and today mud slides were on special.  Everyone slipped, some more than once, and a couple of times it was hiker bowling as one person slid into another.  I think Carolyn is the only one whose butt didn’t make contact with the ground.  Needless to say, we didn’t gain any time on this section.

During this part, for some reason I looked at my left hand and noticed all my rings were missing.  I had a sick five-minute panic attack of thinking that they had come off when I removed my gloves going up Celo Knob – a bad, bad feeling in my heart.  Poor Jeff listened as I talked to myself about what could have happened.  Finally I realized I must have removed them while working at my computer the day before and left them at home.  (PS – I was right.)  So my record of crying on Jeff’s tough hikes continues.

A muddy challenge – by foot or by butt?

A rope?  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Show us how it’s done, Carolyn.

A view, better late than never

The summit of Winter Star is an easy one, just a few steps off the trail to a U.S. Survey marker

Three down – a good day’s work.

Love vine - winds itself around other plants

Underside of Turk’s cap lilies

At Deep Gap we met back up with Jaime and David M to begin the long, steep 4-mile descent down the Colbert Ridge Trail (what goes up must go back down).  Slippery going up is one thing, but slippery going downhill calls for extra caution.  We’ve often had conversations of how difficult a rescue would be in remote areas like this.  But in one quick movement, I slipped off of a large boulder and landed solidly on my low back.  I had to catch my breath (so did everyone else, I think) and needed help to get up.  I’m lucky I didn’t crack my skull on the rock - my daypack saved me from that.  My back felt extremely sore and I gingerly walked the rest of the way.  Thank goodness the trail leveled out for the last mile.  For weeks afterwards, certain movements and postures were painful.  (Yoga classes were not fun.) 

Altogether, it took us 9 hours to do a 10-mile hike, the most technically difficult hike I’ve done (I’ll be revising that statement soon).  At least I wasn’t driving (thank you, David B) and could sit in the back seat and relax my back.  Whew!

(Note:  I moan and complain about the difficulty of these hikes sometimes, but I know that you only get better when you challenge yourself.  I feel a swelling in my chest, a sense of such accomplishment when I successfully complete one of these hikes, and I just want to go out and tackle another one.)

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.  ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Lightly Toasted Hikers

Chimney Rock & Bearwallow Mountain Fire Tower – 7-4-11 – 7 Miles?

For as long as I can remember my mother’s family has held a reunion on July 4, no matter what day of the week it fell on.  My mother was one of 16 children and 4 are still living today (I have dozens of first cousins).  At 1:00 p.m. the lids come off the casserole dishes and we feast on childhood memories of fried chicken, country ham, yeast rolls, meatballs, squash casseroles, tomatoes and cucumbers in vinegar, green beans, butter beans, baked beans, mac and cheese, congealed salads, tossed salads, broccoli salads, seven-layer salads, coconut cake, chocolate pie, pecan pie, sweet tea and lemonade.  After we eat, the families of each sibling stand and introduce themselves and we take photos like the papparazi.  Some years there are more than 150 people.  From my age 10 to age 45 this reunion happened at my parents’ house in Virginia.  When my mother died, my aunts stepped in and carried on at the church fellowship hall.

This year the reunion date was changed to Saturday, July 2, a bold move.  Good news, it increased attendance.  Also, the torch was passed from the aunts to my cousin Libby, who will do an excellent job of keeping the tradition alive.  But why am I telling you this?

On July 4^th I was free to go hiking.

Where to go on a hot, hot national holiday?  There will be crowds everywhere.  Jim and I decided on Chimney Rock State Park at Lake Lure.  We hadn’t been there since our kids were elementary school age. Danny Bernstein includes a Chimney Rock hike in her book, Hiking North Carolina's Blue RidgeHeritage.  We left home at 7:30 a.m. to beat the crowds.

Chimney Rock Park was privately owned for decades but in 2007 was purchased by the state and is now a North Carolina State Park.  NC state parks are usually free, but Chimney Rock SP has many improvements and charges a fee to offset its additional costs.  There are two parking areas, one right after the fee station and a second one farther up the mountain where it’s just a short walk to the elevator (yes, elevator) that takes visitors even closer to the summit.  There are also shuttle buses that run from the lower parking lot to the second lot. 

Jim and I were the first people in the lower lot and we were hiking up.  Ha!

The Four Seasons Trail started out as a stroll and we flushed out a bunch of wild turkeys.    Then the trail began to climb.  And what’s with the stairs?  Hundreds of wooden steps.  A lot has changed in 15 years, I guess.  The heat was rising and I was panting a little harder than I wanted to let on.  Jim, Mr. Cyclist with the enormous calf muscles, was chillin’. 

At the Hickory Nut Falls Trail we turned right and walked a half mile to the falls.  Not much water but an awesome rock face.

Rainbow effect at the bottom of the falls.  Please note, I am not a fan of climbing on waterfalls.  It’s easy to walk over and stand at the base of this one as it falls into a large pool.

From the falls we backtracked to the beginning of the stairs and started going up, up, up – I stopped counting after a while.  I thought to myself, “This is not hiking.”  At the top of this set of steps the crowd swirled around us and we became part of the flow up to Chimney Rock.  Side trails to features like Pulpit Rock, the Grotto and the Subway were closed so we could not follow Danny’s hike as written.  And guess what???  The elevator was closed too!  There were a lot of people that don’t normally climb that many stairs and I was gasping right along with them.  Why was this kicking my butt so hard?  The heat and humidity were a killer combination and I had to stop more than once. 

Jim and I stood on Chimney Rock with the 4^th of July revelers, but the best photos were from the Opera Box feature.

Town of Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock with the American flag – a great place to be on Independence Day

Chimney Rock with the town and Lake Lure in the background

We continued upward on the Skyline Trail towards the summit called Exclamation Point (hundreds more steps).  We came across a teenage couple, the boy’s iPhone in his hip pocket playing tunes, the girl complaining.  She lay down on a wooden bridge and proclaimed that she would only walk seven more minutes and the top had better be there.  As we passed them we wondered what the boy thought he was owed for putting up with her whining.
 

  

At Exclamation Point, a magnificent view of Hickory Nut Gorge and westward toward Bearwallow Mountain, our next hike of the day.  We took a long break to eat and cool off.

The teenage couple made it to the summit, the girl panting loudly and the boy rolling his eyes.  I sweetly told the girl to sit down, drink something, eat something, and in ten minutes she would feel great and very proud to have made such an achievement when she could have been sitting lazily beside a pool.  Sure enough, soon she was all smiles and Jim took their photo to show their triumph.  She said, “I climbed a mountain today.” 

Park employees were everywhere, including one hanging out beside a stone step where a juvenile copperhead snake had taken up residence.  At various points on the stairs employees were stationed with 5-gallon coolers of water and visitors were sitting everywhere, trying to cool off.  

On the way back down we checked out Devil’s Head

Going back down was much easier than going up.  By now people were standing in line to go up the steps, lots of children, dogs being carried.  It was great to see folks being active and enjoying their public lands…but we were glad to be leaving.

In the town of Chimney Rock we searched for soft drinks, found Nehi Orange and Sun Drop in 12-oz glass bottles – a real treat!

Ready for another hike?  How about the Bearwallow Fire Tower?

Jim and I continued west on Hwy 64 past the town of Bat Cave, searching for Bearwallow Mountain Road, easily found using directions from Peter Barr’s book Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers.  At the trailhead we grabbed our packs and felt drops of rain, which we ignored.  Past the gate on the gravel road we saw a sign for a trail to the right with a white diamond blaze.  It looked brand new, but we were not sure…so we stuck with the gravel road.  It’s just a mile walk up to Bearwallow Fire Tower.  

After two minutes the rain started in earnest and thunder rumbled – what to do?  We decided to continue to the edge of the bald and then wait to see if the storm got worse or blew on over.

At the bald, the rain had ceased and the sky lightened so we kept walking.  The gravel road curved widely around a large antenna field and the fire tower, passing a white diamond blaze and a freshly dug trail on the right that went into the trees.  We made a note to go back that way and I left my hiking poles at the intersection. 

The fire tower was fenced off and the gate was seriously padlocked, plus a no trespassing sign, so no climbing today.  This is technically private land so visitors must not screw it up for everybody else.  We didn’t hang around.

When I took this photo of Jim I was focusing on the rows of mountains to the left; meanwhile, on the right the sky was darkening again.  Suddenly behind us I sensed a flash, followed immediately by a tremendous crack of thunder – and there we are standing in the middle of an open bald.  My heart nearly stopped.

Jim grabbed my hand to run but I yelled for us to separate – the only good sense thing I remember.  We sprinted for the woods when we probably should have crouched down in the ditch.  No more loud thunderclaps after that, but the wind whipped up and some rain came down.  Yikes, I felt like such an irresponsible hiker.  We had not left any hike plans with anyone, so if our butts had been toasted up there on Bearwallow Mountain it would have been a while before anyone knew it.

The white blaze trail led us back to the car, several switchbacks and not really shorter, but a really great trail, and of course we felt protected from the weather.  I was glad to see the car and change into dry clothes.  Like I always say, even the simplest hike can be quite an adventure!

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is lightning that does the work.”  ~Mark Twain

Hump Mountain Sherpa Hike

Hump Mountain – Appalachian Trail – 6-25-11 ~ 18.3 miles 

An intriguing post on my local hiking group’s meetup page: 

Hike: 19.2 miles (+/-) and 4,600 ft. elevation gain

Difficulty rating:  very difficult

Ok, sherpas…this is THE mega hike of the year!  We will start at Carvers Gap... our destination:  Hump Mtn.  This is an out & back with a 2.2 mile "side trip" to Big Yellow Mtn (bald with beautiful views) so luv muffin  can bag another peak. We will also stop at Overmountain Shelter... very cool barn & a great place to snack.  Your effort will be rewarded with beautiful views on many balds along the way... one of my favorite hikes!

As always, we will stop to snarf dinner on the way back to Charlotte.

Bring LOTS of water & LOTS of snacks... this hike will burn LOTS of calories.  And please bring a headlamp/flashlight just in case.

Impossible to resist!  I had not hiked with the sherpas since January’s Yellow Mountain fire tower hike (different one) and the MST was no longer challenging elevationwise, so I signed up for this very long day.  Remember, the AT is not close to Charlotte.  We met at 7:00 a.m., drove 2+ hours to Carver's Gap, and we were on the trail by 10:00 a.m.  After all our years of hiking I don’t know why we were surprised when we got out of the car and it was freezing.  Don’t ever unpack your fleece, gloves and hat.

Sherpa hikers ready to move

 

The Carver’s Gap sign has taken a few bullets

Didn’t take long to warm up – first climb, Round Bald

If you want to impress somebody with the AT in North Carolina, this is the section to do that.  Wide open balds, 6,000-foot peaks, twirling Julie Andrews style hiking.  And our timing was good for some stunning wildflowers.

Flame azaleas

Made more stunning by Carolyn and me standing beside them

Gray’s lilies

Mountain ash

Bee balm

Spiderwort

Phlox

Jeff and Carolyn taking flower photos

The trail passed over Round Bald and Jane Bald, skirted past Grassy Ridge Bald (a short side trip for another day) and then dipped back into the trees for a few miles.  We paused at Stan Murray Shelter and then quickly pressed on.  The sherpas were in high gear today.  

Another couple of miles brought us to Overmountain Shelter, by trail standards a luxurious hiker haven.  The name derives from the Overmountain Victory Trail that intersects the AT here, the path followed by the Overmountain Men who traveled over the Appalachians to join the Patriot forces and marched down to Kings Mountain, NC to fight the Loyalists in 1780.  The Battle of Kings Mountain is considered a turning point in the Revolutionary War.  Danny and I intersected the Overmountain Victory Trail a couple of times during our MST hiking.

Sleeping loft of Overmountain Shelter

Covered area for cooking

Lunch break

As we were packing up to leave I took out my camera for some scenic shots.  When I turned it on I heard a gritty grinding noise that made my stomach fall.  Standing beside me, Jeff heard it too.  The lens wouldn’t move and I held a useless (new) camera in my hands.  And right then Matt took this photo.

We messed around with the camera but couldn’t budge the lens, so I put it away.  The rest of the photos from the hike are Jeff’s (well, and a couple of Matt’s and Cathy’s…stolen from their FB pages.)  

Overmountain Shelter from the AT (tiny dot in the center)

The trail climbed up from Overmountain Shelter…and up and up over Little Hump Mountain.  Little Hump did not seem so little.  And at the top of it we could see the real destination – Hump Mountain (center of photo).

  I was beginning to question whether my legs would make it the full distance of this hike.  It wasn’t particularly technical but the up-and-down was making me tired…and we weren’t even halfway done yet.  This was also a “comeback” hike for Matt and he was working it hard.  And Matt had done this hike before so he knew what was coming.  On the back side of Little Hump Mountain the trail switchbacked down into the trees again, then back out into the open down to Bradley Gap.  

These jaw-dropping views kept us going – Grand- father Mountain

Hawksbill and Table Rock (cat's ears formations slightly to the left of center)

Roan High Knob on the far right

Matt warned me that Hump Mountain has a false summit – you’re hiking towards a point, and when you reach it you see beyond it to the real summit, still a long way to go.  This stile was a signal that we were “getting closer.” 

At the summit of Hump Mountain we took a long, long break.  Not every day on the trail is this clear and we soaked it up.  Thanks be to God for the good health and good friends and appreciation for the outdoors that brought us here today!  I had consumed a lot of water and it wasn’t doing the trick.  Steven offered me a giant Gatorade that tasted sweeter than anything on earth and I drank most of it right on the spot.  At last we stood up, shouldered our packs and turned around. 

Going down Hump Mountain was much faster and I flattered myself in taking the lead for this short bit.  Then we climbed Little Hump Mountain in reverse, most of the group in front of me and Jeff.  As we came out of the trees we looked across the bald and saw the trail, realizing that we could cut across the bald and bypass the switchbacks to the summit.  Now, this is something we would not normally do and I can’t say what came over me…but I followed Jeff.

When everyone caught up we reached an unmaintained side trail to Big Yellow Mountain that Jeff intended to summit (Jeff is a peakbagger extraordinaire).  I had already decided to bypass this since I was skeptical of my legs holding out.  Matt opted to continue back with me while the remainder of the group succumbed to the challenge and went with Jeff, adding another 2 miles to their hike.  I regret nothing.

So Matt and I had a great getting-to-know you chat for the hike back, making the miles go faster as we jumped from topic to topic, mostly hiking and then child-rearing.  We stopped at Stan Murray Shelter for a good break, but by now we were pretty wiped out and ready to end.  Still a couple of miles to go and we toughed it out.  Mike, David and Cathy caught up to us before we reached the parking lot.  

In total the hike took 10 hours – we finished at 8:00 p.m.  Matt and I did 18.3 miles, 4,700 feet elevation gain.  The rest did 20.7 miles, 4,900 feet total elevation gain.  

And our biggest challenge was finding a place to eat!  The mountain towns shut down by 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday.  Cathy gave up and fell asleep in the back seat while we searched for food.  That Hardee’s turkey burger in Marion sure was good.  Eighteen hours after I left, I returned home to my soft bed.

One may go a long way after one is tired.  ~French Proverb