Date: 2019-02-22
From: Top of Georgia Hostel 

To: Muskrat Shelter 
Miles today: 11.8

Day 6 on the AT. 11.8 milesThey say that the trail provides you what you need. One year while hiking the JMT my shoes were falling apart. I found the exact same shoe in my size in a hiker box at the Mt Williamson Motel and Basecamp. Last year I found a good pair of sun gloves in a hiker box to replace the gloves that I got dropped off at the trailhead and it was raining. There was one of those information kiosks with just enough room to keep me dry while I put on my rain gear. I looked down and what did I see? A rubber trekking pole tip. Yeah. There was only one but unless I¢m going up a steep hill I only use one pole. So the trail provided again. Today I hiked most of the day in very hard rain. It might not have been freezing rain but it was still cold on the ridges At least it wasn¢t freezing rain. It was very slow going today. The climbs seemed to be a lot steeper and longer. It could have been all of the town food I had that was making me sluggish or perhaps I was having an off day. I normally average 2.5 mph including breaks but today I only averaged 2 mph. The descents were treacherous because the muddy path was slippery. It reminded me of that song ¢I feel the earth move under my feet¢. I picked my way very cautiously down the mountains. There were a lot of pretty streams crossing the trail. Sometimes the trail became a stream. The trail traveled through areas of dense rhododendrons. The Georgia Appalachian Trail club has done amazing work keeping the trail passable. I passed the sign that marks the border between Georgia and North Carolina. Georgia provides bear cables to hang your food bags out of the reach of most bears. North Carolina doesn¢t so if you don¢t have a bear canister or Ursack you have to hang your food bag in a tree. I was wanting to go around 16 miles to the Standing Indian Shelter but there have been reports of a Yogi Bear stealing food there. Apparently the bear climbs the tree where hikers hang their food and then jumps on the bags knocking them down. Between the bear activity and the hard hiking conditions I decided to stop at Muskrat Shelter. I hadn¢t seen anyone else today so I only expected to see Cheese there. I was surprised to see 6 hikers there. They offered to make room for me. I really didn¢t want to deal with shelter life so I went in search of a campsite that wasn¢t going to be a puddle. I found a piece of high ground surrounded by muck and puddles. At 5:00 everyone in the shelter were already in their sleeping bags. I cooked dinner and filtered water in the shelter. I noticed that their food bags were hanging up in the shelter¢s awning. I hope that the  mice don¢t get into their food. Tonight is the first time on the trail when I had to tie my Ursack to a tree. Hopefully a bear won¢t come by and gnaw on it. The Ursack is made of bulletproof vest type of material and is supposed to keep bears and mice out of your food. A hiker at the hostel said that he had a bear gnaw on his bag and ruined his food. I tied the Ursack off to a nearby tree. I placed some rocks on top of it so I could hear if a bear was messing with it. I also collected some small rocks that I could throw to scare away a bear. I¢m a light sleeper when I¢m camping. At 2 in the morning I heard a loud noise that sounded like something large had fallen. I flashed my headlamp light towards my bag and it seemed undisturbed. I got out of my tent to check it and the rocks were still there. Happy hiking, Silver Streak