Day 3 — 13.2 miles
Blackrock Hut to Pinefield Hut
June 4, 2002

The group from Iowa — Bill, Bob, Jana and Jim — arrived at camp as I was writing in my journal. For the most part they were in very high spirits. Jeremy and I were very happy to see that they had made it.

Not long after they arrived in camp, Detour and Heman showed up. The previous night we really didn't get to talk to them much, but tonight we talked as we both made and ate dinner. Last night's dinner was a complete turnaround from the night before.

The stove was still not working with the canister so I made some alterations to the canister, I stuck a small piece of wood into the valve of it so that the pin on the stove would be able to reach the valve and open it. It actually worked for the rest of the night. Our dinner was Country Beef and Potatoes. It was awesome!

After we ate, we all sat around the table discussing various topics such as pack weight, gear, the trail, distances. Food, which is a favorite topic of conversation among thru-hikers, came up. I mentioned the Blackberry shake we were going to the wayside to get, everyone loved that idea and I could just about see their mouths watering, mine was too.

There was even an entry from April in the trail register from Jeff Alt mentioning the Blackberry shakes. Not long after dinner everyone decided to head for bed. Jeremy and I weren't tired at all, and earlier in the night the idea of a campfire was placed in my mind by Jim. Jeremy went up to their tent sites and let them know we were making a fire and then went to collect some firewood. The wood we found wasn't much, but it ended up being a nice little campfire. We sat around and got to know each other better.

During dinner clean up a very large man carrying way too much stuff stumbled into camp. It was reminiscent of "Guiardia Man" from the Long Trail in VT. Same lethargic walk, same pack with too much stuff tied to the outside. Jeremy and I nicknamed him "Fatty McGee". He set up his tent about 15 feet from ours, to our dismay. When we finally decided to head off to bed, our fears were realized. The Lumberjack would have been a welcomed change to this. The nasal vibrations coming from the direction of his tent were enough to scare a bear away!

Jeremy and I awoke at 5:00 a.m. to thunderstorms. Luckily we were sitting pretty inside our sturdy shelter. Only problem with the tent was the fact that it was pitched on a hill, so I kept rolling into Jeremy all night long. We thought the storm would stick around, but by 6:00 a.m. it had passed, barely leaving us damp.

After swearing the night before that we would be in camp later than the previous morning by a few hours, we were out of camp by 6:00 a.m. again. As we hit the trail in rain gear and with pack covers donned, the rain had cleared out. Three-quarters of the way up the first hill, we had to stop and remove the raingear. The humidity was very high this morning.

We got to the summit of Blackrock Mountain and climbed the tallus slope to the summit. There we were greeted by a magnificent 360-degree view. We continued on down the trail. We took a very slow 1.5 to 2 miles-per-hour pace, hoping we could spend some of the extra time we had on our hands. Also we were hoping the foursome from Iowa or Heman and Detour would catch up to us. It was 7 miles to the trail that led to the camp store at Loft Mountain. We were looking forward to getting a new canister for the stove, one that works!

We arrived at the store at 9:45 a.m. and thought it was closed, but thankfully, it was open. The store had a pretty good variety of things for the camper. Unfortunately, they didn't have any fuel canisters compatible with my stove, but they did have CANDY!!! Jeremy and I bought 3 candy bars a piece, he also bought ice cream, I decided not to get the ice cream because we were headed a mile down the hill to the wayside for blackberry shakes and cheeseburgers.

Jeremy also bought a sleeping pad to protect his back from the rocks. After Jeremy finished his ice cream and I finished the small cube of fudge I bought, we started down towards the wayside. As we started down the trail we were greeted by first a deer, then two bunnies. Later as we hiked down the trail, two deer came running around a corner and nearly ran into us.!

We made it to the wayside and saw a phone sign. We'd been told the only phone was one mile in the other direction. We went to make some calls and found that it was for emergencies only. So we moseyed into the wayside. We ordered our food and found out that the shake machine was out of commission and there would be no blackberry shakes today. Bummer!

Also, it was too early to order lunch, so we took a seat at a picnic table outside, removed our boots and socks and waited for 11:00 a.m. to arrive. When it did we quickly went in and ordered a bacon cheeseburger meal. It was awesome! All hiking should be so amazing.

After lunch we lounged around for a while waiting for the others to catch up. By 12:15 p.m. no one was there and we were headed back to the AT. We took the steep Frazier Discovery Trail to the summit of Loft Mountain to rejoin the trail. From the top we had a great view. We then had a very long descent.

The low point of the descent met up with Ivy Creek. There we ran into two dayhikers who were looking for an overlook into a canyon. We had seen nothing like that, but they insisted that they had read about it and it was there. We didn't stay long, in fact we hardly slowed down when we ran into them.

There was a very long ascent following our encounter. Jeremy and I made short work of the most intense climb of the trip so far. It was about a mile of very steep climbing and we kept a 3 mile-per-hour pace the entire way up it. We were absolutely drenched in sweat when we reached the top.

There was a parking lot at the top, and sitting on a rock was a man waiting for Straycat and PapaSmurf. He was supposed to meet them at 1:00 p.m., it was now almost 2:00. On the trail it is next to impossible to judge where you'll be at any given time.

We trudged on, and arrived at camp at 2:30 p.m. There were 3 people there when we arrived, Tequila Joe, Moonlight and Moonlight's Mom (later named M+M Granny). Joe was tending to the fire, and continued to all night long. Joe's company and conversation was interesting. He was a unique guy. I think he consumed 10 cups of hot tea that night. He had some very interesting philosophies too.

Moonlight and his mom were only passing by and were soon on their way. Next Flame, Straycat and PapaSmurf arrived. They were slackpacking and were only stopping by for a rest and to replenish their water.

Jeremy and I bathed and washed our clothes. We hung them behind the shelter, but soon afterwards we heard thunder coming closer. Gail and her father arrived at camp with his dog. They told us there were four people behind them, we asked if it was our friends from Iowa and she told us it was in fact them!