Date: 2011-03-09
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Helen,Ga
Miles today: 0.0

Well I don't know much about hiking the Appalachian Trail, but so far hiking the Appalachian CREEK has been a blast! The first day was rainy and short. We (myself, Feisty, and my dad) only hiked to Hawk Mtn Shelter which is only like 7.8 miles of trail. It was a nice hike I hiked with Feisty all day and she is quite talkative, so she filled the silence and made the miles fly by. Even with the rain people decided to tent rather than sleep in the shelter (which wasn't full). I was not among that crowd, as tenting in the rain is something I hope to avoid for as long as possible. It was a fun first night. The next day it was still raining when I woke up. Yuck. I was hoping it would clear out but alas... it didn't. Gotta roll with the punches I suppose. Feisty left first around 845 and I headed out around 905 leaving my dad to finish getting his stuff together. We had planned to meet at Woody Gap for the night with a lunch break at Gooch Mtn Shelter. I wanted to catch up with Feisty and the weather was well... unpleasant so I was hiking fast. It was so windy foggy and cold that I only ended up stopping twice that day. Once at Cooper Gap, where I hunkered behind a tree to eat a snack, and then again at Gooch for lunch. Feisty wasn't at the shelter and hadn't signed the hiker log, which I was pretty bummed about. I was hoping to catch her by lunch time. I ate my lunch fast as it was too cold to sit around for too long in my wet cloths. When I got to Woody Gap that¢s when I started to worry. Feisty wasn't there. The people that where there hadn't seen her. Hmmm... not good. By the time my dad arrived (who left after both Feisty and I) I really began to worry... but finally around 6 she showed up after hiking down the wrong trail for 2 miles. She did an extra 4 miles... Needless to say I was not envious of her situation, but was very glad she had arrived. We had a nice group camped together that night. It was Feisty, Kristen, Andy, My dad and I. We didn¢t talk much because it was freezing and really, really windy. Andy had to go to the bathrooms to cook his dinner out of the wind. If we had needed ours to boil we would have too. It was an early night for all. I was the last one out of camp the next morning and that trend will continue most likely. I hiked alone all morning finally catching and passing Feisty around lunch time. I was really trying to catch my dad as he and I hadn't hiked together over the course of the trip. I finally caught him just be for the assent of Blood Mtn. That was a fun one. At the top we talked with a guy from Norway for a while which we would later come to kick ourselves for. After our hike down into Neel¢s Gap we received the news that we had just missed Trail Magic in the form of Burgers... but we did receive a bag with chips and reeses in it so I guess it wasn't a total lost! Andy was at Neel¢s Gap and said he was also planning to stay at Bull Gap for the night. I was excited to hear that. He¢s a pretty quite guy, but when he does talk he's got some funny one liners. The weather was beautiful and so was the hiking. On Tuesday I was again the last one out of camp and I left at 820! That is so early in my book! Feisty had at least and hour on me... Gah! So again I hiked alone most of the morning. I pasted Falling Turtle and Trashcan fairly early on. They are really nice I hope to run into them again. Around 10 I hiked into a gap and came across Trail Magic! It was awesome. They were two guys from a church in my home town! What are the odds?! When I got there my dad was still there, so he and I stayed and had a soda and some chips. YUM! The men told us that the rain was supposed to start at like 3AM Wednesday morning(this morning) We had been planning on tenting just past Low Gap Shelter, but after hearing that we decided to just call it a day at Low Gap instead. The only problem, Feisty and Andy were unaware of our new plan. Despite our best efforts to catch them we arrived at Low Gap with them no where to be found, so my dad and I went on a rescue mission. We hiked 1.5 miles past Low Gap to find them and bring them out of the rain. It was a longer day than expected, but my mood was still really good. Low Gap was really full and it was so much fun getting to meet all the new people. It was probably my favorite night so far. This morning we woke up to rain. (No surprise) Andy said the rain started at 1031. Yeah he had it down to the minute; I guess he was still up. We had decided the night before to hike the 10ish miles to Unicoi Gap and head into Helen for the night. We left camp just before 9 and we arrived at the Gap at 1230. We were hiking with purpose today. Oh and when we got to the Gap there was more Trail Magic waiting for us! AWESOME! After getting into Helen my dad, Andy and I went to the laundry mat. That was an experience... this guy told us a pretty wacky story... I don¢t think I believe him, but it made the time fly by and it was entertaining. My shower felt beautiful. Town has been fun, but I can't wait to get back on the trail!! Let¢s get hiking baby!Wow I wrote a lot... My bad! More from the Blueberry Patch. maybe. haha