Date: 2007-04-16
To: Winding Stair Gap
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Don't really know how to enter my trip mileage on this, that's why it probably says 0 for daily miles and total miles up above the entry...Anyway, it's Monday, April 16th right now and I'm in Franklin, NC. I've gone 106.6 miles so far. That is over 9 hiking days, so I'm averaging just a bit under 12 miles a day. This is my 6th zero day, though, counting those 4 days I took off to go home to Atlanta. I gotta give all the credit to the guys I'm hiking with, though -- Rebel With a Cause and Jonathan, a guy whose trail name I think is gonna be Big Brother. Rebel is a gear nut -- his pack only weighs 19 pounds compared to my ~40 -- and I've been learning a lot from him. This is his third time hiking the A.T. (first thru-hike) and I feel real lucky that I've met up with him. Quick summary of this past week: Monday, April 9th: David and Dad dropped me off at Neels Gap (Walasi-Yi Center) and I hiked to Low Gap shelter, about 10.5 miles or so. Good hiking, just a bit cold and lonesome. I didn't really see anybody until the afternoon when I met Texas Jack. It was good hiking with somebody. When I got to Low Gap, I met up with Rebel, Jonathan, and a handful of other people, all really nice and fun to be around: Iceman, Mignon, Usual Suspect, Doggie Bag, Chris, April, Ledfoot, Rebecca, Margaret. Tuesday, 10th: Hiked about 12 miles or so to Cheese Factory campsite. Pretty cool little campsite, I slept in my tent, it got pretty windy and started raining but not real hard. The hiking was pretty good all day, except coming out of Unicoi Gap. About a mile uphill, not too hard but pretty tiring. Wednesday, 11th: Woke up around 9 or so, it was cold and wet, packed everything up and set out on my own. Went over Tray Mountain, no view at all because it was too cloud. Met up with Simarron (sp?), an 85-year old who was (or is) the oldest person to hike the entire trail. I hiked with him for about 30 or 45 minutes until he said "Well don't let me hold you up, I go pretty slow, I'll see you down the trail." It was cool hiking with him; even though it was pretty slow going, he's fun to talk to. I got to the Deep Gap shelter after going over Kelly Knob (about a mile and a half uphill, no breaks, really grueling), met up with Jonathan and Rebel at the shelter along with this guy Ice Tea and his friend. We hung out for a bit and decided we were going into town for the next two nights. We got to Cloud 9 hostel in Hiawasee, went out to dinner at Daniel's (meh), hung out at the hostel and went to bed. This day was the most fun I've had yet, Rebel told Jonathan and I about this game you play where you give points to each other based on how bad you slide in the muddy trail or trip or fall. At that point, we were all so cold and wet we didn't care about hurting ourselves (nobody got hurt anyway) but the fact that we were going into town was motivation enough.Thursday, 12th: Hung out at the hostel all day. Nothing real exciting, I washed my rain gear and pack cover, hung it out on the line to dry, went back later and found my pack cover had blown off. I wasn't real pissed off about it, it wasn't that good of a cover to begin with. I got a better one today in Franklin. Friday, 13th: This is kinda interesting -- at this point, we had gone 66.6 miles. We hiked 13 miles today. On Friday the 13th. Pretty weird huh? Yeah not really, I know. Anyway, the weather was good this day, great hiking, mostly uphill, but nothing too bad other than Sharp Top and Courthouse Bald, which is just after we got into North Carolina. It was cool getting out of Georgia, the trail isn't really that different, but it's just nice knowing you've knocked a state out. I'm glad we're done with Georgia, though. Georgia is pretty much up and down and up and down, not too much level areas. Sharp Top and Courthouse Bald were hard getting over, but since that, the hiking has been really easy. Stayed at Muscrat Creek shelter, where there were probably 25 other people staying, not in the shelter but camped out. It was really fun hanging out and meeting everyone, good campfire and socializing. Saturday, 14th: Went about 12 miles or so to Carter Gap in just under 5 hours. The hiking was very good, we were trying to get to the shelter before it started raining, it wound up staying dry until about 8 or so that night. It was cold and windy, the water source sucked, but once everybody else arrived things got better. Sunday, 15th: Longest hiking day yet -- about 16 miles to Winding Stair Gap. Cold, wet, windy all day long. Don't know why but my two best hiking days have been this day and the other day when we went into Hiawasee and it was cold and rainy then. This day it wasn't just the fact that we were going into town: we didn't decide that until we had gone 12+ miles and it was too cold, it had started snowing, and the shelter was a real piece of shit. The trail got a lot more challenging, there was one point when we were going over Albert Mountain (400+ feet in .3/mile) and it was really steep. A couple times we had to grab the trees on the sides of the trail to pull ourselves up. I loved every second of it, it was a good change from the normal level or sloped trail, and the weather added another element to it. The rocks were a bit slippery, it was real foggy, and the whole time I was thinking how lucky I was to be out there hiking through it all. I wanted to have all my friends there to experience the same thing I was going through. Oh, one more thing: we got to Glassmine Gap where Rebel stopped to have a cigarette break (oh yeah, he smokes about a pack a day and still kicks everybody's ass up and down the trail). Rebel says, "Now, this is a landmark. Does anybody know what it is?" It looked like a regular gap to me, nothing too special, I had no idea. Jonathan and I both looked pretty clueless, so Rebel says, "We have now reached the 100 mile mark of the trail. Congratulations." It felt pretty cool, I didn't feel significantly stronger or anything, but it was a good milestone. Only 20 more 100 trips to go.So that's how it's been going. I'm having a blast doing this, I got a couple blisters on the back of both of my feet but I'm taking care of them. I've got two really great hiking partners that're keeping me going and we're in a bigger group of other people. Today we went to the outfitters here in Franklin and I got a few things to get myself more organized. Tomorrow Nick Ader and Ryan Chapman are gonna meet up with me to hike from Tuesday to Friday. Can't wait to meet up with them and hike with people from back home to see how they like it. Hope all of you are doing well and I get to hear from you soon.