The "Wonderful" Weather Continues

Out of Hiawassee I did 9 miles and camped at the North Carolina state line. Then I did 15.3 miles and camped at Carter Gap Shelter. Then I did 12.1 miles and slept in Rock Gap shelter.

Finishing my first state this time around did not have the same sense of accomplishment. It felt good but last time I remember it meaning a lot more. Just for completeness I took a photo.

After that day there was rain. Lots of rain. Two full days of cold, windy rain. In the midst of it all I did hit the 100 mile mark and was able to keep my spirits up.

After two days and nights of cold, wet rain I decided to sleep in the shelter at Rock Gap. Unfortunately it was completely full and there were almost no flat spots. Someone offered me a hammock and I grudgingly accepted. I had never tried to hammock sleep and figured this was an opportunity to try. Last night was 20 degrees and snowed slightly. What I learned from that combination is that hammocks are quite cold and extremely uncomfortable. To make up for very little sleep and cold feet today I went into Franklin to dry out. I am doing laundry and grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to trail today. The weather looks warmer and sunnier, hopefully the weather isn't lying. 

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?

Clean Clothes and a Shower, Good Things

I successfully held myself to roughly eight miles a day until Neel Gap. It made for some short days but I wanted my legs to get accustomed to the pounding of hiking everyday. My typical day involved getting out of camp around 10 in the morning the hike for a few hours. I would stop after 8 miles even though that would usually mean I would be stopping around 2 in the afternoon.

The past few days have been just about ideal for hiking. It has been sunny with a high in the mid 40's. That is the perfect temperature to hike in my kilt and a tshirt without me getting too hot. This does not sound like it will continue. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain and then the temperature will drop quite a bit. Tuesday night might have a low in the mountains of 15 degrees with an inch of snow. Hopefully I can hit Deep Gap Shelter on that day since it has a real four walls unlike most shelters that are just three walls and a roof.

In the last couple of days there have been some fantastic views. I had kind of forgotten how far you can see when there are no leaves on the trees. One of the better ones is the top of Blood Mt. which is the highest point the trail hits in Georgia.

Today I made it into the hostel at Neel Gap. The las time it was here it was run by a guy named Pirate and it was dirty, strange and an amazing way to show that the trail has some crazy people but they are generally quite nice. Now it is all redone, has nice wood floors and is run by the people at the store. It is still a good place to get clean but I feel like something is lost by losing the craziness.

Lastly, something I have noticed so far is that the diversity, what there is on the trail, is a lot different at the beginning. Now basically everyone at least claims to be attempting a thru hike of the trail. Some people, including me, are willing to admit that circumstances can change and others are die hard Maine or bust. What makes everyone different now is their gear, speed and experience. Later on in the trail peoples speed has normalized to be closer together, people's gear is all worn and dirty making the differences harder to spot and everyone is an experienced thru hiker after a thousand miles or so. Later in the trail though there a lot of long and short section hikers that are also on the trail. Then the thru hikers all become the experienced grizzled people on the trail forming a more cohesive group when looked at as a whole community. Hopefully I continue to notice little things like this that sort of escaped me last time while looking at the situation from only the present.

I just noticed I didn't do specific mileage and sleeping locations for this post. It seems like something most people don't care about but if people want that kind of info leave a comment below and I will do that in future posts.