The Southern Cold

For those following along in a guide book or on a map:

I left Neel's Gap and did 11.5 miles to Low Gap Shelter. The next day I did 13.4 miles to the Cheese Factory camp site. Then I did 9.4 miles to Deep Gap shelter. Finally I did 3.6 miles to Dick's Creek Gap and went into Hiawassee for resupply.

Last time I was on this section of trail it was in the 60's or 70's everyday and I was named Naked Ninja. That name would not have been given to me this time around. Every night it is in the low 30's or less and the days are not that much warmer. I decided to hike to the cheese factory camp site to camp amongst the Mountain Laurels in an attempt to have a nice sheltered spot. It worked fantastically.

That night it felt nice and warm so I assumed the night was warmer then the previous ones had been. During the night I heard precipitation that sounded more solid then rain so maybe it was cold. When I got up that morning there was a beautiful white layer to welcome me into the day. 

The whole next day it was warm and sunny on the eastern side of the mountain and bitter cold, windy and frozen on the western side. It did make for a change of surroundings which was nice.

That afternoon a bunch of decided that the weather forecast of -5 degree wind chills for the night was enough to drive us the slight extra mileage into town. We called a lot of places and it turns out every hiker close to us had already made that decision and there was absolutely nothing available in town. We just had to get friendly in the shelter and hike into town the following morning. Hopefully the weather gets a little better before I get to the Smokies or it is going to be outrageously cold.

Once in town I made the common mistake of buying too much food and now I have to hike out of town, up a hill, with far more food then I need. Then again, if it stays this cold I am going to need fuel to stay warm. The forecast has the temperatures getting back to the high 40's and low 50's but it is calling for heavy rain over the next few days. The AT is absolutely lovely, why doesn't everyone want to enjoy everything it has to give?