Date: 2016-03-06
From: Dicks Creek Gap

To: Muskrat Creek Shelter
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: few clouds

Day 14 - Dicks Creek Gap to Muskrat Creek Gap 11.8 miles 3/6/16Woke up around 6am after a good night's sleep at Top of Georgia hostel. Luckily, Ria and I both had bottom bunks so it was easier to get all of our things together. Mountain Man is a fantastic snored. I'm pretty sure I could feel the bunk bed shaking with every snore. It didn't bother me at all, it was just impressive. Ate breakfast and had delicious homemade banana bread with apple butter on top. Also had some Earl Gray tea. The shuttle to Dick's Creek left at 8am and it was a full van. About half of the van got out at Dick's Creek and I believe the rest were being dropped at Unicoi Gap which is about 20 or so miles before Dick's. Ria and I planned to hike the 4.5 miles to Plum Orchard shelter and then make a judgment call on whether we felt good enough to continue on. Well, we made it to Plum Orchard 10:40am. Which meant we we were doing around 2 miles per hour. We felt great so we took a 15 minute break to eat a snack, pee and air out our feet. We saw a good amount of weekend hikers (today is Sunday) headed in the opposite direction to get out of the woods. After leaving Plum Orchard shelter it was a pleasant uphill. At one point we heard someone behind us imitating a bear sound...it was AK... a guy who had stayed at the hostel with us the night before. He brought Ria and I Girl Scout cookie flavored granola bars the night before so he seems really nice. He did a couple hundred miles of the trail back in 2011 and also did all of GA this past January so he knows the AT relatively well. He is from Tampa Bay, FL and is the manager of a Starbucks. He slowed his pace and joined us for the rest of our hike today. He distracted us on the uphills by talking about food. He would ask us what our favorite candy was, soda, fav ice cream, fav ethnic food, etc. Our heads and stomachs were dreaming of delicious food for the rest of our 11 mile hike. Today was also a big day bc we passed our first state line! We are officially out of GA and in NC. We stopped and took pictures with the sign and I felt the need to kiss it. I am so happy and proud of Ria and I. Yes, we have been going slow but we are still out here. I consider this an accomplishment and I will celebrate it by watching the sun rise in the morning. NC greeted us with our steepest and toughest climbs yet. We went from 2,000 ft to almost 5,000ft in less than 6 miles. Couthous Bald was so steep we could have climbed hand over foot if we wanted. We definitely pushed ourselves today but my knee feels fine and Ria said her Achilles was feeling ok. We received an inspiring thought today from my dad. A poem by William E Henley called Invictus. I have heard it before but we needed it today and we felt like warriors battling up those hills. "Out of the night that covers meBlack as the pit from pole to poleI thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstances I have not winced nor cried aloudUnder the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody but unbowedBeyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but horror of the shadeAnd yet the menace of the yearsFinds and shall find me unafraidIt matters not how strait the gateHow charged with punishments the scrollI am the master of my fate;I am the captain of my soul"This resonated with us and our hike today. Another added disadvantage was the fact that when I weighed my pack at the hostel it weighed 41 lbs! This is terrible!! I immediately emptied two of my water bottles and left myself 2 liters of water in my camelback. This dropped me to 37 lbs. The culprit is my 9lb food bag. I need to not shop when I am starving. If I keep my food to 5 lbs I will be at 32lbs and that is perfect for me.After and amazing amount of uphills today we had only one mile (uphill of course) left to the shelter. We decided to air out our feet and eat a little something. By this point an older gentleman named Ken had joined us at mile 9. He had also stayed at the hostel last night and is from Coco Beach, FL. While us four were relaxing another thru-hiker, Wes, stopped to talk. He had just taken an entire week off bc he contracted an infection (not sure if it was MRSA) on his ankle in the first week on the trail. Crazy!Also, forgot to mention that right after NC/GA border there is this amazingly gnarly tree with a white blaze on it. It looks crazy, can't really describe it. There we ran into two young french guys hiking for 5 days. Back to Muskrat Creek shelter. This is a nice location. Almost everyone has chosen to camp and there are no food bag cables so we all had to hang out food bags ourselves. Thank for this isn't a poplar grove bc there were actually branches to hang stuff from. Also the privy is super private and the water runs right through the area. We met more new faces...Santa, his wife Wonder, Bill Nye, Clean Skittles, Bolt, Joe, and more. There are probably 15 ppl here in total. Heading to bed.