Date: 2016-04-02
From: Tray Mountain Shelter

To: Deep Gap Shelter
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained last night, so I waited to get up until it warmed up and the sun and wind was able to dry things up a bit. I got down my food bag from the bear cables and took it to the shelter to make breakfast out of the wind. A group came in last night and there were hammocks hanging everywhere around the shelter. It is funny to go to bed at night with one or two other tents or hammocks and then wake up, look out and see that many more sprouted up overnight! The group was two families, with kids ranging in age from 10-16. They were all quite cold as they did not have equipment for this kind of cold weather. We all chatted over breakfast, then they packed up and took off, as they had to be back to their car by Sunday and back to work/school on Monday. It's so nice to not have such a schedule!!I got out of camp by 10 am and lo and behold, the trail went downhill! Of course you know that means trouble ahead in the form of many climbs. As I am climbing I am wondering if I am getting any stronger yet. I feel slower than ever on the uphills, but I am at 3600-4400 ft elevation. The air is a little thin up here for a Florida flatlander! Overall, I am making good time to the shelters at night and I am not wiped out when I arrive. Maybe those factors are better indicators of conditioning than my rate of plodding uphill. I am also sleeping much better, so I wake up feeling rested and ready to go. My feet are holding up well. No blisters at all, just calluses building up. Some days I tape them, other days I don't. I have become a big fan of Body Glide, a dry lubricant, that I put on my feet, and on the outside of my liner socks so the thick outside sock slides as well. Anything to reduce the friction in the feet is a good thing!Ther are big winds today, 20-25 mph. Walking the last ridge today I almost got myself into trouble. I was wearing my t-shirt and a headband over my ears and thought, huh, I am getting cold. But it's only a little further to the shelter and if I stop to put on layers, I will freeze and it will take too long. This conversation went on and on until I realized, this is how people die of hypothermia! I threw down my pack, layered up and started hiking again, thinking wow, I am toasty now. How stupid is that. And of course, the shelter is NEVER as close as you think it is, so I was glad I stopped to put on warmer clothes.Deep Gap shelter was thankfully on the lee side of the mountain so when I rounded the ridge and started the downhill into the gap, it was like another world. Calm, sunny, warm. No howling gales. You could actually hear yourself think! I got to the shelter and found a nice spot down below it, even more out of the wind. After I got set up, Elizabeth arrived and was followed by many others. Bill, the ridgerunner I previously met on Blue Mt. was there for the night as well. Odie and Gray Beard came in followed by Great Gramps and FarMore, from California. It is nice to have company my own age. Mark aka Ginger arrived as did John and Amy, both from GA, but Amy went to school at RIT so we commiserated about the pitfalls of snow and cold weather. It was a nice group of people that had been leapfrogging past each other all day. I was comforted knowing that tomorrow we would see each other on the trail again and hopefully end up in the same place for the night.