Date: 2023-05-01
From: Sam's Gap

To: Spivey Gap
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: scattered clouds

I made a very unfortunate mistake today. I woke up feeling pretty good. Had a very processed, but high calorie breakfast. Filled my water bottles, got on the shuttle and was at the trail head by about 8:30am. As soon as I got off the shuttle, turned on my GPS tracking, and put my pack on, I looked down and my heart just dropped. When I refilled my water bottles, instead of immediately putting them back on my pack, I set them down on a table inside the hostel common area. They were still at the hostel common area while I was at the beginning of the trail.It wouldn't have been too big of a deal, the hostel was only a out a 5-10 minute drive away, except that when the hostel owner got back, she was supposed to shuttle another group to a different location that was in the opposite direction and it was going to be at least an hour.I didn't have a choice, I couldn't hike with no water, so I ended up having to go back to the hostel and wait for her to drop off the other group. When all was said and done, I got back to the trail at about 10:30am, so I lost about 2 hours. Fortunately I was only going about 13 miles, so I was still able to get to camp at around 4:30pm. The only thing I really lost was the few hours of rest I could have had if I had started at 8:30. So, it wasn't the worst thing ever. Just kind of annoying. I'd say it ranks right below that second day that I went the wrong direction for a mile and a half.Overall the hike itself was pretty pleasant. Coming out of Sam's Gap was a little tough and the climb up to Big Bald was really tough, but that was only about 3-4 miles of the 13 I did today. The rest was either fairly level of slightly up or down. The weather was decent. It was mostly cloudy with the sun occasionally popping out for 10-15 minutes before getting cloudy again. The wind was pretty gusty, so it did get chilly at times, but when it wasn't blowing it was cool and dry enough that I didn't even really sweat all that much.The one exception was near the top and at the top of Big Bald. There was no tree cover at all and the wind was constantly blowing at around 40 mph. This made it pretty cold. My core was fine, but my hands did start to hurt from being so cold. But the view was spectacular. It reminded me of Max Patch. There was a 360 degree view of everything.I also want to mention an incident that I heard about a few days ago, but forgot to mention. There were some hikers that I've leap frogged a few times staying at a camp site before the Little Laurel Shelter (I think). Apparently some bears came into their camp multiple times throughout the night attempting to steal their food that was hanging in the trees. They'd scare them away and 30 minutes later they'd come back. They finally seemed to scare them off for good until sometime during the early morning they heard a loud crack and then a crash. One of the bears had climbed the tree and gotten out onto the branch where the bags were and it broke under his weight. The crash they heard was the bear hitting the ground. They managed to get away with at least one person's food bag, but I think the others had a secondary line attached to them so they didn't get taken.It's supposed to get pretty cold again tonight, the mid 30s I think. There is a slight chance of rain, and in fact it has sprinkled a few times briefly since I got in my tent, but I don't thin it's supposed to be a lot. One downside (among many) of colder weather, especially at a tent site with no shelter house, is that there isn't as much socializing. Everyone sat around during dinner and talked for a bit, but after that it starts to get dark, the temperature starts dropping, and everyone just wants to get into their tent to get warm. It's only about 8:15pm and I might just go to bed because there really isn't anything else to do. I do have my Kindle, so I might read for a bit first.Breakfast: A package of chocolate chip muffins, two frosted strawberry pop tarts, and a small bottle of orange juice. Like I said, highly processed.Snack 1: A package of peanut butter crackers.Trail Magic: Someone left several coolers full of various things on the trail. One cooler was empty, one had some canned meat, and the other had some fruit and other things. I took an apple.Lunch: Since I started late, I decided to skip lunch and just keep moving.Snack 2: SnickersRecovery Drink: 8 scoops of Carnation Instant Breakfast Dinner: Peak Beef with noodles and marinara sauce. I think I've had this before or something similar. It was fine, but I put too much water in it.