The hotel had coffee, hot cocoa, donuts and fruit for breakfast (what a deal!!), and I had snagged a bit of fruit from the buffet last night in a plastic bag (shhh), so the morning meal was taken care of. We said goodbye to Still Steve who was gonna spend another night in town, and we headed to the main drag to hitch up to Newfound Gap. (side note: Steve is awesome. And if Zack Galifinakis did a movie about hiking, Steve could be his body double... Also, Steve is very helpful as he started the AT southbound last summer and knows all about the northern half of the trail. He got held up in Pearisburg, VA with all the snow early this year, so he took a small break and began down at Springer the day after we did. (also also... Steve thought I was 22, so he gets extra fun bonus points...))
Not ten minutes into strategizing did a little ole lady in a teal 2-door coup pull up and lure us in with the promise of fried chicken!! Her name was Timex, and she was 70. She thru-hiked in 2004 and had a trunk full of food to take up to hikers as trail magic. Golden!!
She gave us a few pointers about the trail and told us some stories (including the one where she fell down a mountain and broke two ribs!?! At 64?!!??!? ...she kept going, too...), and then we were back at the gap, eating chicken and chocolate and soon saying goodbye. What a morning! And what a beautiful day!!! (oh, and we saw a bear near the road on the way back up... two tourists were out of their car snapping photos... seemed very zoo-like, so I'm not sure I can count it...)
It was just lovely out - 65 and sunny maybe...? Probably got up to 70. We set up the hill, which according to the map was supposed to be a very steep climb, but it ended up being a very handle-able grade. The hiking was great today! And (as Xan said) it was vista-licious!
We were basically walking on narrow ridgelines with Tennessee on our left and North Carolina on our right. It was beautiful, and there wasn't too much mud until the end. There was still a bunch of snow in the shady parts if the mountain. The three of us stayed together the whole day and had an awesome 90's sing-along during the last 2 hours. Barenaked Ladies, Cake, 311, Puddle of Mudd, Spice Girls, Billy Joel, Cher, Kid Rock, The Offpring, Alanis Morissette, and much much more... Good times.
We pulled into a fairly full shelter around 6:15pm. Little Foot, Pee-Wee, and Yeti were thinking about pressing onto the next shelter, 7 something miles away, and doing a little night hiking while there's a full moon out. Xan and Brian were in, but I was done for the day. I can go night hiking when it's warmer... and we had already done 16miles. So they left and I set up camp on the bottom shelf of the shelter. Joyce was here and a few familiar faces. I made my noodle soup and packed up for bed. I gotta catch those guys tomorrow! (they're planning a late start and they'll be stopping in Davenport gap for a package, so it could happen...)
Should be nice again tomorrow, but rain through the weekend.
Happy ASM10 to the ABI'ers! Hope all is going well over at National Harbor!!
-- Posted from the trail...
1 comment:
Carrie! So great to see a photo of you up there. Keep up the good work.
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