Mar 30

DAY #27
START LOCATION: Groundhog Creek Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Walnut Mountain Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 13.1
TRIP MILEAGE: 258.7
MILES TO GO: 1,920.4

Crappy sleep and awoken way too early by an owl, but I was up and out
at 9AM this morning... Good time given the raw soupy weather. I was
"the bunny" for the second time that I can remember on this trip.
That's a self coined term I give anyone that heads out on the trail
first from camp in the morning... A bunny like at a greyhound track.
I'll think to myself... there's the bunny we're all chasing today.
Well today it was finally me.

I felt awesome all day. A big climb, lots of PUDs, crappy morning
weather and I still flew. I had the high I used to feel in cross-
country when it was all coming together. I could accelerate, slow down
and change gears at will without feeling winded or needing a break. It
was a hikers high.

I got to what is normally the glorious Max Patch by 11:45AM. It's a
gorgeous expansive grassy bald at El. 4,629' that normally has
breathtaking 360 views. Google Image it, you'll see. But, once again,
it was socked in the clouds. The weather was supposed to be breaking
and I had seen the sun peek through during the ascent, so I was
hopeful it might while I was there. So, I decided to wait there for
the others to arrive, made my phone call to the Tracey for our Hot
Springs rendezvous and sent my blog post. While I was there, a really
nice vacationing Virginian couple, CJ and Kecia and their pup Rudy
were at the summit hoping to see the views as well. We waited,
chatted awhile, I gave them a rundown on thru hiking and we took
pictures. It was nice to chat with some non-thru hikers. I love my
thru-hiking colleagues to pieces, but our conversations are limited to
food, mileages, weather, food, gear and food. After a half hour, we
all decided the views weren't going to pan out. So I snapped a few
pics of the little bit of valley beneath us, we said our goodbyes and
we pushed on. Oh well.

Met up with Cornpatch and the three boys from Cambridge, MA... Wall
Eye, Wanderer and No Point at the Roaring Fork Shelter for a late
lunch and sure enough, the skies went brilliant blue and the clouds
cleared. A real bummer we missed that on Max. Gives us an excuse to
come back in the future.

Cranked down to the Walnut Mt. Shelter by 3:30 where a nice Florida
family was enjoying the kids spring break by hiking shelter to
shelter. The sky was perfectly clear, so Upgrade, Cornpatch and I are
tenting up on a hill near the shelter. Its nice. This is the first
time in over a week we've tented as it's all but outlawed for thru-
hikers in the Smokies.

With only our second rain free evening since Gatlinburg our spirits
were high again. Lots of laughs over dinner and Cornpatch even donned
his bear's head hat and snuck down to the shelter to scare the kids.
But, they didn't fall for it. Cornpatch is already figuring out what
he'll do better next time. Oh and I got pictures o the shenanigans.

Gorgeous night tonight. I can hear a freight train horn barely audible
from miles away and it's such a soothing sound. I will sleep great
tonight and I plan on sleeping in tomorrow too. It's an easy 9.9 miles
to my lay up shelter before Hot Springs where 3 days of trail away
time awaits with the McNeills. Very excited for that.

Blog technical note: very sparse phone service out here in western NC.
So be patient and don't worry if these posts don't come every day. I'm
writing em daily, just can't always send em daily.

-natedog