Date: 2019-04-10
From: Stecoah Gap/ish

To: NC 28/The Hike Inn
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: broken clouds

What a long day! I got up earlier than I have been, despite being wiped. I woke up at 7am and got my stuff together. Justin was up too and we chatted a bit while packing up. I headed out around 8:30. The downhill to Stecoah Gap was a little longer than I expected. I was happy I had stayed on the ridge, but pretty anxious about the day. After Stecoah Gap, there was a long uphill, Jacob¢s Ladder. What a beast. It was quite steep. I haven¢t actually mentioned the weather. It¢s been really hot! I complained about the cold before and now I¢m complaining about the heat haha. I expected that would happen. I actually prefer the cold normally, but when I have the right layers. Now that it¢s been hot, it¢s been uncomfortable to hike in. I¢ve been sweating quite a bit and have been pretty dehydrated. Climbing that first climb in the heat was tough. After that, it leveled out a bit, but there was still a fair amount of uphill today. I ran into a couple I had seen briefly at the campsite yesterday before I pressed on, and I met a lady as well. Her trail name was something with ¢squirrel¢ in it. She was headed toward Fontana today too. We were joking about how you can¢t trust people on the trail because people will say things like ¢tomorrow is all downhill¢ and then you get your hopes up and it turns out to be some downhill with a bunch of up. I do have my AWOL guide to confirm the elevation, but I also trust people easily, so if someone says, ¢the next part is all downhill¢, I¢m ready for the downhill. People do that a lot on the trail. They say that about weather too. Yesterday someone at Sassafras Gap Shelter told me I would get rained on and that ¢it was coming for me¢ and with those rain clouds circling, I believed it. I was never touched with a drop of rain yesterday. I¢ve learned to trust my personal info. and apparently this woman feels the same way. I had stopped for water when I saw her, and I was about 3 miles from Cable Gap Shelter at this point and about 8 from Fontana. I had not eaten a lot, again. It¢s weird, I totally got the trail hunger the other day and was going crazy over my food, but now I¢ve lost it again. Maybe I just have too much on my mind with the stress of timing and whatnot. We often feel things in our gut, so if I had anxiety or stress in my gut about what I was doing, I might not have had hunger. It sucks though. I want to eat! Today I had a ProBar for breakfast. It was good, but I wasn¢t even hungry enough to finish it. I put it in my pocket for later. Even though I was having food issues, I knew I needed water desperately in this heat, so I made it a priority to stop where I did. It was a bit of a walk off trail and ¢Squirrel¢ joked with me, saying, anything that¢s ¢off trail¢ is still ¢on trail¢ if you decide to go there. I must admit, I was not in a good mood today. It was a combination of exhaustion and stress I guess, but I was in that ¢easily irritated¢ mood. I was irritated by the lack of trail maintenance and the amount of branches I whacked myself with and trees I had to climb over. There was one tree that was honestly comical to me. It was more than half my height, so I would¢ve had to lie down on top of it to get myself over. Thankfully, a path led around it, but it was a muddy path that looked like it had been made by someone passing through. There were also a ton of webs! You know when you¢re walking outside and suddenly you hit a web without seeing it and have that gross feeling? I hit about 50 webs today. They¢d be in between the bushes and branches that were blocking the trail and I¢d keep having to wipe them off. I do want to take a moment to appreciate nature, as I know that is why I¢m here haha. The AT right now is a bit bare. There isn¢t much vegetation, which makes going to the bathroom behind a tree a real blast. You can see everything haha. Both Georgia and North Carolina have been this way. North Carolina is a bit more spread out with uphills and downhills. Sometimes it¢s all at once, or a steady incline or decline. But it isn¢t the same as Georgia¢s constant up and down. I still pass through Gaps all the time, but they aren¢t as brutal here. Every time you get to a Gap, you know there¢s an uphill coming out of it! Squirrel said Gap stands for grueling agonizing pass. Haha. Overall, the views have been spectacular, but the hiking itself has gotten a bit boring. There¢s plenty of variety in terrain, but it¢s still pretty dead and bare throughout, and the lack of trail maintenance doesn¢t help. I¢ve seen some pretty little flowers coming up alongside the path and I¢ve seen lots of butterflies. One even flew ahead of me for a while the other day, hiking the trail with me! And of course, the ridges are awesome, especially sleeping on one last night! I reached Cable Gap Shelter and headed for the privy. I really don¢t want to give TMI, but I¢ve been having trouble with the whole ¢cathole¢ concept out of exhaustion when I have to go, but there have also been privies the whole way so far. A past AT thru-hiker told me they don¢t continue, so mentally I¢m prepared for no privies, but for now I¢m taking advantage. Unfortunately, Sunday night, the privy was so full the pile was a foot or less from the top. Trail maintenance!!!! But it¢s been rough this week, being that time of the month and having a tight, heavy pack on my hips. Women, y¢all can hear me out there. I saw the boys from Kentucky again. I¢ve run into them several times today. They¢re always smoking something haha. I also ran into Buck the doggie and his owner. I keep forgetting his owner¢s name haha I¢m not ashamed that I¢m too attached to the dog. Buck knows me now and came over for a petting. He¢s such a good boy. I love that dog. May or may not steal him. 10/10 would pet him all day. Squirrel was smart. She took her shoes off and soaked her feet in the stream at the shelter. I should¢ve. My feet were starting to ache. It was 2pm and I had 5.5 miles left to go. Sounds okay timing-wise, but as with every Gap, you have to climb out of it! Haha. It was a good 3 miles uphill. It was rough. Physically my body was done. I was so wiped I was practically bent over trying to hike up those climbs. Finally I made it to Walker Gap, and it was about 2/2.5 miles from there to my destination. It was 3:50. The Inn said they could pick me up before 5, so I was really against the clock at this point. It was a really rough downhill, with all sorts of rocks and roots and steep steps. My feet were killing me. I was actually wincing while stepping and sometimes whimpering in pain. I know I did this to myself, but I eventually planned 15-20 mile days and I¢m trying to get my body ready and test out what I¢m capable of, while being safe too. I took that Nero at the NOC for my body¢s sake as well as the rain. Today, my body was not happy at all. I finally reached the road crossing and followed the instructions from the Inn owner, using a phone box thing (parents yes I know what that is) to call because there is no service down at the Dam. There was a vending machine there and all I wanted in that moment was a soda, but I didn¢t have exact change and didn¢t want to risk putting a big bill in there and not getting it back. The Inn owner picked me up and took me back. It¢s a nice little Inn and she runs it since her husband passed away a few years back. I was limping out of the car because my feet were in that much pain, and I limped all around my room. I got into the shower and that felt good. I put all my laundry in a pile and gave that to her. I actually still have clean clothes from Franklin because I¢ve been wearing the same sweaty T-shirt and leggings every day. Yes I reeked. I apologized to her, but I¢m sure she¢s used to it. She then took me into Robinsville for dinner. There is nothing in Robinsville. Even on the way, there were several dilapidated houses. There was Wendy¢s, McDonalds, and Subway, or this Mexican restaurant. I went for the Mexican restaurant rather than fast food. I downed a whole bowl of chips so fast I was wondering where it went. Chips, hello? Are you out there? Haha. I ordered a yummy pork quesadilla that was grilled in pineapple. Yummy!! I couldn¢t finish it though. Blame the chips. I brought the rest back here, but probably won¢t get to eat it. I was intrigued because I wanted a margarita, but it¢s a dry town here. The guy at the restaurant was joking about how sad it is to have a Mexican restaurant without margaritas. Yeah too true man! I came back and put on the TV, something I haven¢t done in weeks! And Harry Potter was on, my fave! I stretched out my feet and watched it. I¢m relaxed, but sore now. I took Advil for my feet and elevated them for a bit, so hopefully they¢re better tomorrow, when I enter the Smokies! Woot woot!I saw an interesting quote on one of the churches in the town today: ¢you are never too lost to be saved¢. Pondering that for a bit. Song of the day: Lord of the Rings soundtrack! There was a cool-looking fog this morning in between the mountains and as I climbed that beast of a mountain, I listened to one of my fave soundtracks. Don¢t worry, the Harry Potter soundtrack was next. Little Debbie