An Appalachian Tale: Part 9

13 May 2010

Yin:  Yang and I woke up pretty early today to make sure our packs were set to go.  Renee was already up and out the door before we were even out of bed.  Soon we were on our way in a personally owned taxi service.  Our drivers name was Sally and she was a hoot!  She was a world traveler also and told us many stories of "her day".  About an hour later we were at our destination.  Tonight we are staying at Brown Fork shelter which was about only five miles of up.  In comparison to "the Jump Up"  today's journey was considerably easier.  This shelter was the first so far that did not have bear cables, so we had to fashion our own.  Between Yang and I, we rigged a block and tackle pulley device which worked very well.  I also found some sassafras root and we made tea and just relaxed all afternoon because this was also the first time that we had the entire shelter to ourselves.  To conclude:  I think I may have just found a walking stick and I am going to go cut it down!  Goodnight!

Yang:  Finally made it back to the trail today.  Was starting to get cabin fever!  We had a pretty good car ride this morning with the shuttle service.  I think our drivers name was Joyce, and Yin thinks it was Sally, we may never know for sure.  Our shelter tonight is "Brown Fork".  We could tell we had taken a break the last couple of days because the five miles of up was pretty rough.  The very first thing I noticed about the site was that there were no bear cables.  We managed to throw together para cord/carabiner pulley system that worked out well enough.  We met Cricket, Blue, and a few others who stopped in for lunch.  Other than that we had the shelter to ourselves the rest of the night.  A very nice change!  We chilled and made some sassafras tea.  I found a walking stick here and it looks like Yin has too.