[at-l] AT Hike Report: Day 26

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

Thursday, 04/03/03   Cosby Corner Shelter               13 miles
    About 9:30 PM last night Katherine Pong walked into camp.  She could not 
figure out where there was room in the shelter to put her sleeping bag without 
shining her headlamp on everyone.  So, she slept on a very narrow bench.  The 
outhouse at this shelter is a portapotty on top of a wooden platform designed 
for composting or moldering.  I think the volunteer trail maintainers ran out 
of time or money.  The door on the outhouse was damaged and would not close 
the entire way.  Katherine came to use the facilities at the time I was 
occupying it.  So while I was on the throne I told her jokes.  She had been leaving 
jokes in the trail registers at each shelter.  Most were very corny.  But I 
looked forward to reading them.  Now were were going to be ahead of her.
    We got up at 6:00 AM had a cookless breakfast and were walking before 
7:00 AM.  We had absolutely amazing views today hiking across ridges on the TN 
/NC border.  We heard lots of bird songs.  Took a break at TriCorner Shelter for 
some snacks and a brief rest.  The local couple who camped with us last night 
stopped while we snacked.  She was trying to remove a splinter from her 
finger.  I loaned her the tweezers from my Swiss army knife.  We talked awhile with 
them about flowers, hiking, ticks, etc.
    We took our time today to absorb all of the views.  We noticed foliage 
starting to open on the south side of the ridges, it was still brown in the 
north side.  There were tons of black berry bushes and what looked like Shasta 
daisy plants.  We arrived at Cosby Corner Shelter about 4:00 PM.  Crystal and her 
two hiking partners came into camp.  We expected Katherine Pong to show up 
but she never did.  This is a great shelter with water less than 30 feet away.  
There is  newer moldering privy.  And it is much closer to the trail.  
    Chicken Feet and Flanders, MedicineMan and Freemont ate dinner at the 
shelter then pushed on to the fire tower on Mt Cammerer to catch the sunset and 
sunrise.