Day 1

Black Gap Shelter to Sassafras Mtn - (1.5)+11 mi

Clear, cold, and very windy as we woke up and started hiking.  1.5 miles to the top of Springer, met a nice southern guy named Sam on the way up. There were tons of people at the top, maybe 15, all different kinds of people. We signed in with an older man named Many Sleeps who spends a couple days a week camping up there and signing people in. Headed down at 11am and were surprised by our first bit of trail magic a mile later in the FS42 parking lot. Mountain Squid gave us Huggie drinks (the little plastic barrells of "juice") and cream pies (mike's new favorite) and we signed in (yet again) with him. Spent a little time walking with Nate and getting to know him better then 3 miles then to Three Forks for lunch. Found a beautiful spot off-trail by the creek and had an awesome lunch of steak fajitas. Stopped in at Hawk Mountain Shelter 4.5 miles later to get water and decided to keep hiking and not stay the night since there were so many people there (people= noise, no privacy, and rodents). We made it 3.5 more miles to a nice secluded spot on top of Sassafras Mtn. just in time for the sunset. We made a little fire but it ended up being really smoky due to wet wood and lots of wind. Sat under a million stars and watched the trees above us sway in the heavy wind.