Date: 2019-04-04
From: Carter Gap Shelter

To: Rock Gap Shelter
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: clear sky

Today was amazing!! It was sunny and warm, and I officially reached 100 miles! This morning I headed out from Carter Gap, late as I have been. I really need to get moving! Ugh. Despite that, I had a great morning hike with some incredible views. I climbed over one mountain that was called ¢Big Butt¢. Haha. That was a scary climb for a moment because I looked down and realized I was on the edge of this ridge, with a rocky cliff below me. It wasn¢t like that the whole climb, but for a bit it was. I didn¢t summit that mountain, but I did summit the next one. Albert Mountain was a beast, but such a fun climb. It was steep and short and involved some rock scrambling, but I loved it. I really preferred that over Standing Indian¢s ridiculously slow climb. At one point I definitely had to put my poles aside and use my hands, but I do want to give a shout-out to my poles because I love these things. They¢re amazing. They¢ve probably saved me 20 times at this point with all the root-trips I¢ve made and they definitely help me push down on some of the steep steps while climbing. At the top of Albert Mountain was this awesome firetower. If you all remember, Murris was talking about fire towers on my first day and saying I needed to check them out for the best views. This one was definitely awesome. The climb was really scary though; it was a very shaky metal staircase and it was quite windy as you climbed up. I climbed it twice because I wanted to use my GoPro to mark this special accomplishment, since the 100-mile mark was here, and I had to go back and get it! The views were spectacular. 360 views like that are something to remember. I spent a long time just taking it in, but freezing as well because it was so windy. I had some snacks at the bottom of the fire tower and then began the descent of the mountain. It was a nice downhill for a while, and there was another marker that said 100 miles made out of sticks, and one written in paint on a rock. I don¢t know what the official 100-mile mark was, but I know that I hit it today and it felt amazing. I have never hiked that many miles! I¢ve biked it, but haven¢t hiked it. It was so great. I reached the first shelter that some people were staying at around 3:30pm, but decided to hike on to the next one so I¢d have less hiking to do in the rain the next day. I met Steady Eddie, who was in his 70s I think and had hiked 16 miles that day. Impressive man!Unfortunately there was a little downside to the day at this point. I ran into this lovely couple who I had chatted with at the top of Albert Mountain, Swamp Cat and Green Knight. We were chatting about resupply and I was talking about needing new bear rope and maybe a new bag (unfortunately mine has some rips, I think from the weight). I was commenting on how hard bearbagging is for me, and they were agreeing, saying they had gotten bear canisters (plastic containers that don¢t need to be hung). A girl was next to us and she said ¢bear bagging is so easy. I¢ve never had a problem¢. I don¢t know, it just really upset me. I¢m insecure about this camping thing that may seem like standard practice to everyone, but to me it¢s not at all. I really can¢t throw; my strength has always been in my legs. So trying to throw a rock perfectly over a 20-foot branch is tough for me, and especially if there are other bushes and branches in the way. I know I¢m not alone in this because the guy who got my rope stuck managed to get the rock stuck in the tree and the rope twisted. And a lot of what I¢ve seen is just plain fails, as I was talking about with the bag hang that was a few feet off the ground. There was one 5 feet above my tent tonight. A bear could¢ve easily snatched that and landed on my tent lol. Anyway, I just find the process really annoying and I have to validate myself that it is annoying because it¢s probably the thing I dislike about the trail most. The girl who said it was easy may find it easy, and that¢s fine for her, but I¢m going to feel the way I feel about it. Someone commented on my post and said they¢d remember me as ¢the person with bearbagging issues¢. Well great. You can join me on the trail and do all my hangs for me if it¢s that easy! Ugh. That person did leave nice comments in addition and I appreciate that, but it¢s hard to be struggling with this.I must say, the girl¢s comment really got my mind going, as it tends to do. I¢ve noticed that all of my friends on the trail are guys. And yes, there are more guys than girls on the trail, but still, I¢m closer with the guys. Today when I got to the summit of Albert Mountain, all of them were in the fire tower and they called out my name and cheered for me and took pictures. It made me feel awesome and I felt great to have such wonderful people by my side. But they¢re all guys. I definitely feel more reserved with girls because I just have had way too much drama and painful experiences there, but it would be nice to be friends with some of the female hikers too. I just got to thinking about it all because that girl¢s comment made me feel insecure and inferior to her, when the guys actually made me feel validated when they got my rope stuck and were having trouble. Hoping I meet some more girls on the trail who I can become close with too.After that insecurity funk that followed such an incredible high, I went on to my shelter. I arrived around 5, with plenty of time to set up and eat before the rain. I set up next to Colt, which I found funny because we slept next to each other last time it rained too! I was excited to see how my tent would do! The ultimate test of my new tent! I made a Mountain House meal, but could not finish it. I needed help again with my bear bag ugh. Q-tip was awesome and helped me hang it. It was getting dark and the rope kept coming undone, so we left it pretty low on a tree, but there wasn¢t too much food left in there anyway. Q-tip had a lot of trouble the other night, throwing his rope at a tree branch for 45 minutes, and now he helped me, so maybe I will get this thing down eventually too. Q-tip¢s mom called him and it was truly hilarious to hear some of the stories she told. Q-tip is 18 and graduated from high school early just to do this. He is from Vermont and was a huge gamer before this and built his whole gaming system from scratch. His mom complained about how much time he spent on technology and his response was to buy a ton of gear and leave for the trail. He¢s a great kid and reminds me of some goofy kids his age that I know. I stayed warm by the fire and then went to bed. It was warm and cozy in my tent, but I had no service to write or celebrate my 100 miles, so I just went to bed. I could hear the rain start and was praying I¢d stay warm and dry. I had a nice time hanging with my trail friends today and a great success too! Here¢s to a shower and bed tomorrow! Song of the day: ¢I Could Not Ask for More¢ by Edwin McCain.Little Debbie