Date: 2019-03-25
From: Tanyard Gao

To: Spring Mountain Shelter 
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Monday Day 36Tanyard Gap to Spring mountain Shelter 5.1 miles.My last morning at Laughing Heart Hostel. It sure has been a pleasure staying here and slack packing these scenic mountains around Hot Springs, This morning I had breakfast with Narsil, Q and Gator at Smoky Mountain Diner. It was a pleasure meeting Gator for the first time, I had read about him in Narsil¢s journals so I felt I already knew him. Shortly after my delicious breakfast I went to Dollar General to resupply on a few items. DG ,Dollar stores are fantastic for resupply if you are ever near one. After that I went back up to the hostel took a last shower for the week and packed up to head out. Guess what is in the forecast for today ? Well I started hiking down the highway to come into town when my buddy Ben Hayes drove by as he arrived into town, it was now a little before noon. Ben is hiking with me this week and had gotten up super early and had driven here all the way from Muscle Shoals Alabama.Ben picked me up at the bottom of the hill and we went to the outfitters to meet Wild Bill our shuttle driver. We followed Wild Bill to Devil Fork Gap where we would leave Ben¢s Vehicle.It was so funny Wild Bill said he never speeds and it would be easy to keep up with him....maybe if you are a Nascar driver lol. These mountain roads were so curvy! We finally got to a very remote spot off the road to leave Ben¢s SUV. I sure hope Ben¢s car will be ok there as this is a pretty secluded area. I got a feeling no one will mess with one of Wild Bill¢s clients. From there we all jumped into Wild Bill¢s van , I got into the back seat. Big mistake I started turning green after the upteenth curve at light speed. We finally arrived at Tanyard Gap and I headed straight for the woods to settle down . Once I composed myself Ben and I took off up the mountain it was 2:30 PM but we only had 5 miles to do unfortunately straight up the mountain and with steady winter mix. Ben did awesome he¢s one tuff dude to climb these mountains in these conditions on his first day. He never complained even though he got soaked to the bone. When we finally got to the shelter it was late and filled to capacity. Cricket, Salamander, Haymitch, Shine and Puff were not asleep but already tucked away in their bags . No problem, Ben and I quickly set up our tents and then we cooked our meals and got ready to retire. Salamander asked if Ben had a trail name yet. Well two minutes later Ben returns from his tent in his sleep clothes, a bright red fleece with red and black plaid pajamas.It made every one happy to see Ben so apparently comfy and weexpected to see him pull out his house coat next. Well as you can imagine everyone had suggested trail names at that point and the shelter finally dubbed him Snuggs short for Snuggles. ( a manly trail name) We went to bed with the coolest sounds of owls hooting and making unusual mating calls in the distance and the guess what ? Rain all night.So far I¢m dry safe and warm in my tent. The poor owls are probably soaked. Snuggs had a tough intro to the AT yet he¢s smiling and bringing smiles to all of us!