Day 19 – Sassafras Gap Shelter to Cable Gap Shelter

Sunny, with a high near 82. Southeast wind 1 to 6 mph.

Up at 6:50. Nice morning, but it’s going to be hot today. One nasty climb right out of camp, then another in 8 miles…call it noon. Overall, I’d like to do 15.4 miles today in order to be close enough to Fontana tonight to get in by noon tomorrow. And tomorrow starts 5/6 days of rain. Lovely.

A note on heat. Being from the mid-Atlantic, I don’t mind the heat very much. It’s the humidity that I hate. But I’m used to working and hiking in the low 90s with 75-85% humidity. It’s amazing how many people that I have met who are complaining about the heat when it’s only 82 and low humidity. And a lot of them are from the south. I’m confused.

Finally killed off my first fuel can, making tea this morning. I need to calculate how many boils I got out of it. Ate breakfast, topped off the charge on my watch, packed up, used the privy, and headed out at 8:15.

As I was leaving camp, I noticed my left knee was swollen. As my soccer friends know, my knees are not in the best shape. It doesn’t hurt right now, but it has a habit of popping out of joint. If that happens enough times, it will hurt and keep popping out more frequently. I need to be very careful with my foot placement for the next few days.

I summited Cheoah Bald at 9:10. Got a great picture. Insects are really bad, but I’m holding off on applying Deet for now. 

I’ll stop at Stecoah Gap in 5.7 miles. There are picnic tables, a parking lot, and water there. Good lunch spot.

Stopped at Stecoah Gap at 12:30. About 12 hikers were here in the shade using the picnic tables. Including the loud group from last night. Walked about .1 miles to get water, then had lunch, threw away trash, and rested until 1:30. Let the other folks get well ahead of me before I left. The only downside was that there is road construction going on right next to us.

Immediately after lunch, I had to climb this nasty thing. It took almost 2 hours to go 2.3 miles and 1100 feet up. I felt like an old man on those near-vertical parts. I stopped every 100 yards or so. That may have been the worst climb so far. At least the next 6 miles are mostly downhill to camp for tonight. MOSTLY!

I nursed my water on the way up that thing. Fortunately, there was a spring just after the summit. I hiked down to the spring and filtered water, then hiked back up to the trail. It was warm and sunny but breezy.

Speaking of warm and sunny, this guy was sunning himself on the trail just past the summit and scared the crap out of me. I hate rattlesnakes!

I have had a few questions about what the actual trail looks like in terms of width and drop-off and such. It varies a lot, but lately it has been narrow (2 feet or less) with steep drops. A few examples.

I made it to Cable Gap Shelter at 7:05. No cell. And the loud youngsters were here again. I got camp set up quickly and walked to the shelter to make dinner at 7:50. I tried stovetop stuffing with dehydrated chicken. It was good, but a LOT of food. I only ate about half of it. Lesson learned.

All in all, it was a hard 16-mile day. I’m beat and have rain to look forward to for at least the next week. I crawled into bed and fell asleep by 9:00.

Technical Notes:

• Tea: 0 
• Poptarts: 370
• Summer sausage: 450
• Snickers: 250
• Trail mix: 270
• Stovetop stuffing: 500
  • Too much food: 
• Dehydrated chicken: 170
  • New fuel can
• Water: 6 liters
• Miles: 16
• Time: 11:16
• Elevation gain: 3634
• Calories consumed: 2200
• Calories burned: 4322