[at-l] AT Trip Report: Day 2

[ARTCLOUTMN at aol.com (ARTCLOUTMN@xxxxxxx)]

Monday 03/10/03  Hawk Mountain Shelter  (9 miles today 7.6 AT miles)

    It was cold last night - 35 degrees at 7:30 AM.  We left camp by 9:10 AM 
heading for the summit of Springer Mountain.  It took us only one hour to 
reach the summit where we celebrated with high fives and photographs.  We 
found the trail register in the metal container embedded in the rock at the 
summit.  
    After a few minutes of celebration, Sly showed up.  He and Cheryl drove 
up FR42 and parked the truck at the summit parking lot.  They then hiked 
north on the AT to camp for the night.  They hoped to find Pittsburgh at the 
Hickory Flats Cemetery but could not find the logging road that lead to the 
cemetery.  Pittsburgh was organizing a slow hiking group.  The group was 
planning to meet every few days at an area suitable for a group of 10 people. 
 Cheryl and Sly found another place to camp and enjoyed their mini hike.  I 
exchanged hiking shoes because my new pair were not fitting comfortably.  And 
we got some supplies out of the truck that we left there to lighten our loads 
a little for our first day on the trail.
    We left Cheryl and Sly at 11:50 AM heading north.  We wanted to find the 
logging road to Hickory Flats for our lunch break but we never found it.  I 
think we stopped too soon.  We stopped by a stream to prepare dinner.  This 
turned out to be Three Forks.  A road passed by the stream.  We got our first 
trail magic by this stream when a nice lady from Mississippi gave us home 
baked bread to eat with our dinner.  The lady (Mississippi Mama) was leading 
a group of young boy scouts on a week long backpack.  She would hike with 
them for a distance, get them settled then hike back to her car and drive 
around to the next road crossing where the boys would pick up some of their 
heavier gear.  We talked about hiking and about her college age children who 
were into hiking in a big way.  The bread was delicious.
    The trail was wonderful in this area.  There were amazing groves of oak 
trees with little or no undergrowth.  And spectacular tunnels of 
Rhododendrons.  We passed by many streams with plenty of water.  The weather 
was perfect for hiking on this day.
    We reached Hawk Mountain Shelter about 5:30 PM.  The shelter was full so 
we set up tents.  We did not need to cook dinner since we had eaten dinner 
earlier in the afternoon.  A fire was going at the shelter so John, Regan and 
I joined the group of thru hikers hanging out by the fire.  A girl named 
Jennifer described her first night at Springer Mountain Shelter in a Hennesy 
Hammock.  Apparently some creature pushed her feet up during the night.  She 
thinks it was a bear so insisted on sleeping in the shelter tonight.  I told 
my bear story.  That had everyone a little nervous.