Date: 2023-11-05
From: Cheoah Bald

To: Hawk Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 136.8

Google Photos Photo AlbumDay 144AT miles 14.0 Miles hiked 14.0Cheoah Bald to Wesser Bald ShelterI slept great last night and woke up in time for the sunrise. I made some hot chocolate and sipped on my cocoa and ate a honey bun while waiting for the sunrise. I was not disappointed. It was beautiful. I packed up for what I hoped would be a fast 9 mile hike to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). Phil had dropped off a box of hiker meals for me and I was coming in for a resupply. The first couple of miles descending were not as bad as the last couple ascending last night. The trail was not that fast since there were lots of ups and downs and the trail could use a little TLC from the maintainers.  A couple miles before NOC was a monument to a forest ranger who died fighting a forest fire in the area. Little did I know that in the coming days and weeks there would be several major forest fires along the trail. This was a reminder of how people willingly put their lives on the line putting others before themselves in the line of duty.I made it NOC about lunchtime and stopped into the outfitters to pick up my package. After that I went over to the restaurant to get some lunch. I must have had my near starved to death hike face on when the waitress took my order. I¢m pretty sure I got a double order of fries and macaroni and cheese along with my burger. I made short work of putting away that meal.I then went over to the store to pick up some snacks to round out my backpacker meals. After repackaging my meals I still had four meals that wouldn¢t fit in my pack so I was going to mail them back home. As I was finishing up repacking my pack I heard that familiar Ukraine voice again and there was TJ, Nobody, and Poison Ivy. I gave them my leftover meals and TJ bought me a beer and we shared a bag of chips. They all grabbed some snacks for the next couple of days then we hiked out of the NOC together. I had planned to camp on Wesser Bald that night. When we got to Wesser Bald Shelter it was dark and I was tired. I contemplated hiking the last two miles up to the bald area but remembering the mess I hiked through the night before I decided to stay at the shelter. We all ate dinner together then turned in for the night.Day 145AT miles 20.5Miles hiked 20.7Wesser Bald Shelter to Moore Creek CampsiteI was up and out of camp before the others. While I stopped to filter some water they passed me on their way up to Wesser Bald. The trail was in surprisingly good shape and I wished I¢d gone ahead and hiked up the night before. You never know. The view from the bald however wasn¢t as good as Cheoah so maybe it was a wash.  During the hike smoke was really building up in the valleys and causing my throat to burn some and making me concerned about how close any of these fires might be. I passed TJ and company when they were filtering water.  I got to Wayah Bald around 2:00. There is an impressive stone tower erected there providing amazing views of the surrounding mountains. There is an access road to the bald so there were several sightseers at the bald. I could see the smoke from a fire off in the distance so I knew it wasn¢t close by. After taking some pics I went down to cook lunch. There was a large family there and they were full of questions. About 15 minutes later TJ, Nobody and Poison Ivy showed up. We continued eating lunch together and entertaining the family that was up there. The grandma had baked some cookies and gave us each a chocolate chip cookie. We started getting ready to leave about 3:00 and Poison Ivy asked if the smoke behind the mountain was there when we got there. We looked and were shocked to see a plume of smoke behind the mountain. It wasn¢t there before. They finished packing and left. I stayed and watched as the fire came up and over the mountain and continued down into the valley. Looking online I found this was the Collet Ridge fire. I was surprised at how fast the fire was moving. After about 30 minutes I grabbed my pack and took off.I passed them again at Wayah Gap. They were surprised to see me as they thought I was ahead of them. Nobody was carrying a plastic sword and told me this fantastic story. He saw a sword sticking up out of a rock so he went over and pulled the sword out of the stone shouting, ¢I. Am. King. Arthur!!!!!!¢ He then knighted TJ and offered to knight Poison Ivy. She gave him the eye roll that daughters give their dads after a good dad joke. When I got there he told me, ¢Prepare to be knighted.¢ So down on one knee I went and was knighted. I am now Sir Taps. When we got to the road Sir Nobody found a pair of clean Darn Tough Socks. On the road Sir Nobody found a rock with a message painted on it. I was expecting him to find a $100 bill before we made it back into the woods.I stopped at Siler Bald where they planned to stay at the shelter then go into Franklin the next day for resupply. I figured this might be the last time I see my new friends so I wanted to wish them well and say goodbye. They caught up and Sirs Nobody, TJ, and Taps had the last meeting of the Knights of the Triangle then we all said our goodbyes.  I had about four more miles to hike before I got to where I planned to camp. I found the campsite, set up my tent, got water from the stream then went to throw my bear line. There lots of pieces of rope hang in trees. Strange. Anyway, I hung my food and went to bed.Day 146AT miles 22.9Miles hiked 23.2Moore Creek Campsite to Standing Indian MountainI was startled awake around 5:30 with the strong smell of smoke in the air. Remembering how fast the fire was burning yesterday I scrambled out of my tent and looked around to make sure I wasn¢t in any danger. The air was hazy with smoke but it seemed safe. I got my food bag, fixed breakfast, and packed up. I had a long day planned and needed to make good time.The hike to Wallace Gap was pretty nice. I checked over the ridge and the smoke was thicker than yesterday but I felt the fire was far enough away to not be of concern. This was the road the others would take into Franklin later today. I took a couple of pics then continued on. There were a couple of good climbs ahead, notably, Albert Mountain. The trail had some ups and downs and the trail tread was mostly very hikeable. Along the way I started noticing signs posted up about aggressive bear activity from just before the site I camped out last night all the way to the shelter past Standing Indian Mountain. The notice said that bears had figured out how to defeat bear hangs including PCT bear hangs. That might explain all the lines hanging from the trees last night.It got dark with about five miles to go. The wind was steadily picking up but there was no rain in the forecast. It was just going to get cold overnight. I knew I was hiking mostly uphill but kept waiting for the trail to turn steeply upward. It never happened. All of a sudden I was standing next to the Standing Indian Mountain sign. Even though this was within the warning zone it was after 9:00 PM and I was not hiking eight more miles to the next place outside the zone. I decided to skip dinner so as to cut down on food smells and hung my food bag and went to bed hoping for the best.Day 147AT miles 18.3Miles hiked 18.3Standing Indian Mountain to Dick¢s Creek GapIt was still windy and cold when I woke up but it was only 18 miles to food and resupply. No bears visited last night so my food bag was still hanging. I didn¢t have much food but if it stays cool and the trail is like the past couple of days I should be able to roll into Dick¢s Creek Gap pretty quickly. I ate a honey bun and drank some water while I was packing up. I put my biscuit in a ziploc of water to soak and hit the trail.  The sun finally started coming out and it felt great to be getting warm. I stopped about an hour into my hike to fix my biscuits and gravy hoping the 1000 calories from that plus my remaining candy bar and 2 cookies would be enough to get me through the day. In a rare event for freeze dried backpacker meals, the Peak Refuel biscuits and gravy rival the real thing after the preparation instructions are tweaked a bit. The trick is to pre-soak the biscuits until they are getting soft, then add a bit less water than the instructions call for to keep it thick. Mix well and let it soak far longer than the instructions call for. After eating I packed up and started hiking. With the extra calories I was feeling a lot stronger.I periodically checked for phone reception and finally had enough signal to call the Green Dragon hostel to make reservations. They had space and told me to call when I had about 2 miles to go and they would meet me in the parking lot. They were expecting another hiker at 3:30 and I told them that was the time I expected to be there as well. Back to hiking I was soon getting the feeling that my original timetable wasn¢t realistic. The thick dry leaves were slick and hid obstacles on the trail. I was slipping, sliding, and tripping constantly. Downhills were the worst. The trail was also broken off on the outside in places meaning there technically was no trail. I was just hiking on the slope of the mountain which added an extra thrill to the adventure.  The sun which I so gladly welcomed a few hours ago was now making it pretty warm out for November so water was becoming an issue. As in, I was out and every water source was dry. I came to the ????? shelter and stopped to take advantage of the facilities. As soon as I left I came to a stream that had enough water I could scoop it. After skimming off the bugs and leaves I started scoping and filtering. This took awhile but eventually I had 2 liters of water besides the liter I drank while filtering. Two section hikers showed up so we talked about the trail, water sources, the weather, and our hikes. After about 15 minutes I set out again. By 3:30 it was clearly evident that I had really misjudged how fast I was going to hike that day. I was really tired, had drunk almost all my water and decided that the next place I found water was going to be a water/lunch stop. Almost immediately I saw a sign in the woods that said ¢Water¢ and pointed down a hill. I checked on Far Out and a comment from two weeks ago said the water was just a trickle. Just a trickle meant there was hope. I climbed down about .3 miles and found a trickle of water. Better than nothing. It took awhile but I was able to fill both water bottles. I climbed back up and fixed the rest of my ramen and drank a liter of water. I had a bit more than four miles to go.  If anything, the trail got worse as I got closer to the parking lot. More rocks, more leaves, steep downhill. Plenty of thrills but luckily no spills. I made my two mile out call to the hostel and prepared for the final descent. I finally made it to the parking lot just before Bill pulled in.We hit it off right away as he was tuned to a 70s music channel, used to be a DJ that played mostly 70s music, and had been in the Army (a fellow 2 ID Warrior), had quit teaching to open a hostel. I felt like we were best friends by the time we arrived. The timing was perfect as Donna, his wife, was getting ready to serve dinner. There were four other hikers there and we all became acquainted during dinner. There was Scuba Steve who I¢d met at the Broken Fiddle hostel in Damascus, Stitch (so named because she was knitting on trail) and her boyfriend who came to hike the last part of the trail with her, and 70 year old Crash who was hiking the trail for the fourth time.After dinner Bill took Crash and I to the Dollar General so we could get snacks for the next day¢s 20+ mile hike. When we got back the others were watching the movie ¢Otto¢. I¢d already watched it before hitting the trail but got sucked in while I was packing for the next day. It¢s a great movie but not exactly a movie to psych you up for a hike. Just before the movie ended Donna came in to iron out all the details for the shuttle and breakfast time the next day. Crash and I were eating breakfast at 6:15 and leaving for the trail as soon after as possible since it was a bit of a drive to Neels Gap.Soon as the movie was over we all hit the hay since we had an early day tomorrow.Day 148AT miles 21.2Miles hiked 21.2Neels Gap (NB) to Unicoi GapToday I was slackpacking northbound from Neels Gap to Unicoi Gap. I know. I just skipped 17 miles of trail but it will work out. There is a charge for the shuttle to do this section as a slack and another hiker at the hostel, Crash, was doing this section so we can split the cost. Even though it was a 20 plus mile day, in a sense it was still a bit of a recovery day since I wouldn¢t be carrying a full pack and the trail was supposed to be fairly cruisy.  Crash and I were up early for breakfast and were soon joined by Scuba Steve, Stitch and her boyfriend who was hiking the last part of the trail with her. Donna prepared a nice breakfast quiche and baked some biscuits for breakfast. As soon as we ate Crash and I grabbed our gear and headed to the car where Bill was going to shuttle us to the trailhead. The others were heading southbound from Unicoi Gap continuing on towards Springer.Neels Gap is the location of Mountain Crossing, an outfitter and a famous landmark on the AT. The trail actually passes through the building. NOBOs who arrive here have the opportunity to go through the ritual of the pack shakedown where employees at the outfitters go through hikers¢ packs and make suggestions regarding their equipment and what they are carrying. By this point in the trail, SOBOs should have it figured out since they¢ve already hiked over 2100 miles. I¢ve personally ditched a lot of gear along the way trying to cut weight. Amazingly, no matter how much stuff I send home my pack always seems to be the same weight.  The trail starts up a two mile climb up Levelland Mountain then smooths out to a relatively flat, cruisy trail. Compared to yesterday when I was a bit dehydrated and underfed I was feeling like super hiker today. After a few miles the trail came down to a road intersection where I ran into a thru hiker from last year. She wanted to talk about her hike. And every time I tried to leave, she talked more. Pretty soon Crash caught up and rescued me. We hiked about another half mile then stopped for a snack. I was back in my groove in no time.  About 11 miles into the hike I met Scuba Steve, Stitch and her boyfriend who were hiking SOBO. We stopped and exchanged trail info then went our separate ways. The trail began turning a bit rocky and even had a New Hampshire vibe going on in a few sections. The dry leaves piled up on the trail made the descent over these rocks more challenging and I frequently found myself leaf skiing down the hill. About a mile from the gap I met up with a couple of day hikers who may have been in over their heads. They were older (at least looked and moved like old people) and commented on how rocky the trail seemed. They hadn¢t even made it to the bad part yet.  I got to the parking lot in just over 7 hours including breaks. Day 149AT miles 16.7Miles hiked 16.7Unicoi Gap (NB) to Dick¢s Creek GapBy doing the Neels to Unicoi section yesterday this left about a 17 mile gap in the trail so today I¢m filling in the gap. This is a free shuttle included with the hostel stay, Crash is taking a zero today, and tomorrow we¢ll split the cost of another shuttle to Neels Gap.Today was not going to be that warm and will also be the first of a three day stretch of rain. A fitting end to an already wet thru hike.Donna says she believes this is the hardest section in Georgia. Alltrails.com echoes those sentiments. Other hikers at the hostel agreed. We¢ll see.The beginning was straight uphill for about two miles climbing up Rocky Mountain. Given the name of the mountain I had visions of New Hampshire but the trail was actually pretty nice. The rain had matted the leaves down making it easier to see obstacles on the trail. The wet leaves also made for better traction.Once up and over the mountain the trail was very cruisy and I was making great time ¢ almost 3 miles per hour. Next was the climb up Tray Mountain. The climb was long but the nice trail tread made for fast hiking. On a clear day there would have been some nice views from the top of Tray but today I was hiking in the clouds so there was no view. The descent down Tray was pretty quick and before I knew it I was two miles out and it was time to call for my ride back to the Green Dragon.I made it to the parking lot before Donna. She was amazed at how quickly I did the hike. She put out a water cache for hikers then we headed back.Since Crash and I were the only ones staying at the hostel we decided to go out and eat rather than have Donna cook a meal for us. We drove to a nice local restaurant for dinner.Just after sitting down Speedo and Crocstar came over to say hi and I looked over and Teva and Hambone were also there. We had a mini family reunion. They had met (Sir) TJ, (Sir) Nobody, and Poison Ivy on the trail so had learned of my recent knighthood.  Dinner was great and afterwards we headed back to the hostel to get ready for tomorrow. Lifeguard was at the hostel along with a mother and daughter who were doing trail work the next day. The daughter is planning to thru hike after graduating next year so she peppered us with questions and listened eagerly to all our hiking stories. Day 150AT miles 23.2Miles hiked 23.4Neels Gap to Hawk Mountain ShelterThe plan was to hike 27 miles to Stover Creek Shelter which would put me less than four miles from Springer. The weather and trail had other plans.  We woke up to the sound of rain outside. Unfortunately the weather forecast was turning out to be accurate and it was going to be a cold, wet day. Fitting weather given the Northbound portion of my hike. Crash, Lifeguard and I went to the dining room for breakfast. Donna had made her delicious breakfast quiche along with some sticky buns. We made short work of breakfast while talking about our hikes for the day.After eating, we grabbed our gear and headed for the cars. Donna was taking Lifeguard to Dick¢s  Creek Gap and Bill was taking me and Crash to Neels Gap. We took a few pics then loaded up and moved out.  It was a little over a half hour drive to Neels Gap. We pulled in and said our goodbyes then Crash and I started hiking. I was headed up Blood Mountain with visions of Cocaine Bear dancing in my head. Blood Mountain is the highest mountain on the AT in Georgia. The hike up the mountain wasn¢t bad and would have been really nice on a warmer, sunnier day. Near the peak was the Blood Mountain shelter which was quite an impressive structure.Near a stream before Gooch Gap I met two section hikers who were doing a shakedown/section hike in hopes of doing a thru hike in the near future. They were full of questions and were excited to hear about my hike. Pretty soon Crash caught up. He was a little frustrated that a trail intersection wasn¢t marked and he took the wrong trail. Familiar story. Crash was a good excuse to break away from the section hikers and get back to the mission. We hiked together for about 15 minutes then I was pulling away again. Like me, Crash enjoys the company of other hikers when the hiking is over but prefers to walk alone at his own comfortable pace while moving down the trail. He was hiking to Above the Clouds hostel for the evening and didn¢t have far to go.I stopped at the Gooch Gap shelter for a hot lunch. There were a lot of hikers there dodging the rain so I had company for lunch.  Heading over Justus Mountain the trail turned rocky and my pace started slowing down. I was starting to wonder if I would make my mileage goal. Oh well, it looked like a night hike was in the cards thinking I might be rolling into camp about 8:00. By now, with the dense cloud cover and heavy misting rain it was getting dark. The rocky, narrow trail continued over Sassafras Mountain to where it got dark. My headlamp was almost useless as visibility with it turned on was maybe one foot. I ended up holding the light in my hand and pointing it at the ground. This made for some extremely slow hiking.  The trail crossed a forest road at Hightower Gap. This was a disaster as the almost nonexistent visibility made it nearly impossible to find the trail. After about 20 minutes I finally found a trail with log steps but no blaze. I started slowly up the trail and eventually, the blue dot on Far Out aligned with the trail and I finally found a white blaze.Fortunately at this point I was close to the Hawk Mountain shelter and it was almost 7:30. No way was I going to try hiking four more miles under these conditions if it wasn¢t absolutely necessary. As I approached the trail to the shelter I saw headlamps in the distance and then the welcome sight of a campfire. There were people already asleep in the shelter and three young guys out for the weekend sitting around the fire. I set up my tent, grabbed some food and joined them at the fire. They grew up near this area and spent a lot of time hiking the trails around here. They were a lot of fun to talk to but I was wet and starting to get cold so it was time to head off to bed.