I'm Going To Carolina in My Mind

The last time I posted, we were on on way out of Helen after riding out the storm.  Since then it has been four beautiful sunny days on the trail. 

After a breakfast shared with a very friendly traveling elderly church group (one in which we explained no less than a dozen times who we were, where we were going and what we were doing), we headed to the IGA to grab a ride.  We left Helen around 9:00 on Tuesday morning in the bed of an old Chevy, along with two other hikers, Timo and Laura.  They were on vacation from Germany and were hiking until New York where they would visit New York City and then fly home.  They were very friendly, and they assured us that the "German" town we had just stayed in was indeed nothing like Germany.   Also, Timo had the most hilarious, high pitch stereotype of a German voice you could imagine.

A scenic ten-mile drive later, we hopped back on the trail at Unicoi Gap and got ready to head out.  We spotted Bernie across the way, said our hellos and goodbyes, as it was likely the last time we would see him on the trail.  We started directly up a mountain, a very steep mountain, to reach some of the nicest views we had seen yet.  While up top we met the two kings.  Recently out of the military, they were hiking the AT to raise money for neurological disease research.  They were friendly enough, and they were slack-packing for the day.  Slack-packing is when you have someone drive your packs from one road crossing to another one farther along the trail, take a day pack and bust out a big mileage day. 

We kept on going and were at the base of Tray Mountain when we ran across Inchworm.  Inchworm was a 66 year old man who was plugging away at section hiking.  He had been working on it for quite a while, many many years in fact.  Oh, and he had triple bypass surgery less than a year ago.  Inspirational, right?  Well, summer is around the corner, get out and hit those trails!  If he can, so can just about anyone.

Okay, off of my soapbox and on down the trail.  After about 14 miles, we arrived at Deep Gap Shelter.  When we got there, there was a very bubbly young lady named Claire who was sweeping out the shelter.  It was a beautiful twelve-person shelter with FOUR WALLS!  The things that brighten your spirits on the trail can be so simple.  I never thought a fourth wall would make me so happy.  The only bad part about this shelter was the condition it was left in by previous occupants.  Trash in the backcountry works in a very simple way: if you pack it in, pack it out.  Needless to say, we were left picking up someone else's mess (now I know how it felt all those years mom, sorry).  We got the place in tip-top shape with a bit more trash to carry the next day, and then we started our first campfire of the trip.  We spent some time gabbing with Claire while we all gathered firewood and found out that she was quite an interesting person.

She was born in Omaha, moved to Seattle at a young age, went to Costa Rica to do research on turtles during her undergrad, taught English in Thailand after grad school, moved to Alaska to teach low income, low level readers, and then decided to hike the AT while figuring out what's next.  Her northern terminus is a beach ultimate frisbee tournament in New Jersey.

Soon, MacGyver saw a golden opportunity for a great piece of firewood, a twenty-foot section of a tree, one end of which someone had begun to cut through, but had not finished.

"Hey Axl, you see that log?"
"Yup."
"You see that V in that tree next to it?"
"Yup."
"Let's go New Hampshire Whole Hog on it."
"Okay."

Saying okay when you are not sure what someone is asking you is a dangerous game.  Apparently, "New Hampshire Whole Hog" equates roughly to wedging a long log between a V in a larger tree and then pushing it until a short section breaks off, leaving you with a perfect log for your fire.  Great idea, right?

In theory yes, in reality no.  We pushed and pushed, trying like the dickens to break it when it slipped the tree and ricocheted back at us catching MacGyver square the shin and ankle.

He limped over to the river to ice his ankle, and we all hoped it wasn't as bad as it looked.  Claire scolded us (in a kind and funny way) for being childish and stupid, so we gave her a trail name of her own: Mom.  MacGyver came back and informed us he was fine(ish) and we all went to sleep.  We weren't alone though.  We had a lovely host of mice to keep us company and prevent us from sleeping most of the night.

After a fairly sleepless night, we got going for a pretty uneventful day.  The only significant event of the 13 miles was at the very end of the day, we crossed out of Georgia and into North Carolina.  With one state in our rear view mirrors, we were in high spirits as we set up camp in Bly Gap.

Nagging injuries and many short nights of sleep in a row quickly turned those moods and we had a somewhat dismal morning, which wasn't helped by the overnight rain.  We did a bit of solo hiking that day, which, given the nature of the trip and the forced closeness, is about the extent of the alone time we get.

My own reflections were largely regarding differentiating what you can affect from what is out of your control.  Hiking is a great exercise for this.  There are so many daily factors beyond your control that you must take it in stride, or you soon lose sight of why you're out here in the first place.  I am in the woods to relax, be surrounded by nature and hang out with my friends, and no amount of rain, bugs or dirty shelters can take away from that, nor can anyone's attitude except my own.  I guess introspection is necessary, even in (especially in?) nature.

Anyway, as the day rolled on, our moods improved and we ascended Standing Indian Mountain, which has the nicest views in the Southern Appalachians.  We marvelled for a bit at the beauty, and then continued on to our home for the night, Carter Gap Shelter.  We met a handful of hikers, all very friendly.  We did some food exchanges with Brian, who was sustaining entirely on Cliff Bars and coffee.  Even with all of those delicious flavors, he needed a bit more variety.  That night, we were again joined by dozens of mice, which we are quickly learning are mainstays of the shelters.  The solution?  Earplugs.  If you can't hear them scratching, it's like they aren't even there.  I slept very well that night.

This morning (Friday) we woke up early and got going around 7:30 on a.nice long gradual incline.  Just before noon, we had a mad scramble up a rock face to get to a fire tower.  We hustled up to get some pictures, and hustled down before the impending lightning storm blew us up.  A nice leisurely lunch and an easy afternoon walk brought us to Rock Gap Shelter and also beyond our first hundred miles.  We got here early enough to cook a nice meal, beans and rice mixed with mashed potatoes and pepperoni.  We also had some time to do necessary self-doctoring on our feet.  Blisters and hotspots that needed some TLC finally got it, and some self foot massages and stretching sessions helped to alleviate a lot of our minor aches. 

Tomorrow we have our first guest hiker, the one and only true blue Sam Mattern-Schain.  He is driving two hours to meet us, at which point we will head into Franklin, North Carolina.  MacGyver wants to grab an x-ray on his foot just to be on the safe side, we all need to do laundry in a very bad way, and we decided we want pizza.  We thought one each would be overkill, so we plan on three between the four of us.  And breadsticks.  And ice cream.  The next post will probably be from Gatlinburg in a week or so.  Until then, happy trails!

*just left the hospital, MacGyver's foot is fine!