Day 35 - 5th May, 2010 - Flint Mt Shelter to Low Gap - 15.9 miles

Our first three miles of the day in less than 1 hour to the road. We are starting to get faster and are so proud of ourselves. It was flat and we were fresh, but we still did the fastest three miles we had ever done on the AT.

Just above the road, on the climb to the ridge are two graves. Some fake flowers and a headstone on a small knoll. One grave is a woman born in May 1865, and died in April 1965, one month short of her 100th birthday. We climb another hundred feet, past a waterfall in a damp gully, where one hiker is having a shower. We reach a small level campsite, and a closer inspection reveals it is the site of an old homestead - there is the fireplace, the timber log cabin walls, and an old wood stove rusting in the forest. The headstone is the only reminder of who lived here, and when she died it was demolished into a pile of rubble.

We follow an open ridge - the AT is illegally used by deer hunters in the deer hunting season to carry out their carcasses. They use chainsaws to cut the trail to fit their machines - 4WD motorbikes. We meet two trail maintainers who look after this section of the track and despair at the illegal use of the trail by the deer hunters. There is no enforcement of the laws, and the maintainers watch the deterioration of their section of trail.

We stop at Hogback Ridge Shelter for lunch with Stickbuilt, Taterchip and Kindling. Kindling shares his recipe for an exciting lunch - take one tortilla, spread it with peanut butter very thickly (and then lick the spoon), place sliced pepperoni on top of the peanut butter and then roll, eat and enjoy. Kindling consumes three tortillas made as described. We watch in fascination. On the next shopping expedition we start carrying peanut butter and tortillas. We already eat pepperoni as a mainstay for lunch. We discover this is a great taste sensation, and it becomes a standard lunch for us too!

We cross a major highway and this is quite exciting - the roar of the traffic on the overpass while we go underneath.

The trail passes underneath the freeway.

In the middle of the afternoon, as we climb the last ridge to the campsite we meet two hikers heading in the opposite direction with 7 dogs - all German Short Haired Pointers. I am missing Kimmy and feeling dog deprived, so I can't believe my eyes when the pack of dogs comes down the hill. This is one of my favourite encounters on the trail. It is a couple - he owns three of the dogs, and she owns four. She sleeps with her four inside her tent. His dogs sleep outside his tent. Imagine doing this Australia!

Hiking with a dog pack

We make camp at Low Gap and Kindling joins us, but Stickbuilt and Tater Chip stop a few miles short. This has been the longest distance we have walked on the trail so far, and we are exhausted. At 9.30 pm the nightstalkers pass through. Not sure where they have been and why they are behind us, but they probably hitched a ride into a nearby town from the road crossing the trail.

It is a pattern that we experience again and again - fast young hikers passing us, and then passing us again, and then passing us again. We just keep walking at our snail pace. The younger generation take the deviations off to civilisation to eat hamburgers etc.