AT Thru-Hike Day 10

Mile 81, Muskrat Creek Shelter ( 4,567 feet) to Mile 93.5 Carter Gap Shelter (4,518 feet) for a day total of 12.5 miles. We can not and will not do anymore 12 mile days too soon. It takes a huge toll on the body to hike in these mountains!

We left out of camp around 8:30 today with a goal to get to Standing Indian Mountain (5,478 feet) for lunch and hang out and eat. We made it there just in time, 12:00 on the dot!

The Cherokee name for the mountain translates to, “where the man stood”, according to a reference in Wikipedia. The story goes the man was supposed to stand guard on the mountain to protect the children from being stolen by the winged monster. The tribe prayed to the great spirit for protection, the protection came in the way of thunder and lightning, which scare away the man standing guard. Because he left his post he was turned to stone.

We descended Standing Indian Mountain with the intent to set up camp at Beech Gap but it was a small tight space with lots of low hanging trees and no where to hang a bear bag.

Found a great stream finally today to photograph and to get water. Most of the streams have been really small and slow flowing, but not this one!

We finally made it to Carter Gap Shelter and got camp set up and cooked. Just my luck, I ran out of gas tonight so I had to borrow some, it worked out though. The guy had an extra can so now I get to eat tomorrow night! Haha

AT Thru-Hike Day 11

We hit mile 100 today!! We started at mile 93.5 Carter Gap Shelter (4,518 feet) to a stealth campsite at mile 103 near Glassman Gap ( 4,162 feet). We ascended 1,705 feet and descended 2,200 feet for a grade of 397 feet/mile.

At mile 98.5 we turned off trail to see one of the most amazing views we have probably seen yet.

From here we continued on, passing through Mooney Gap and walking a razors edge of a trail up to Albert Mountain, our big climb for the day.

A few tenths of a mile before the hand over hand climbs up Albert Mountain there is a road passing along side the trail, it’s a gravel forest road, there we saw a familiar sight and a familiar face, we saw Onesimus again doing trail magic, handing out ice cream sandwiches! The climb up to the 100 mile mark was a tough one, so we sat and ate an ice cream sandwich and lunch, not in that order of course, Who eats dessert first, to boost us over!

What is that .2 mile section like from the road to the top, well, 4,830 feet up to 5,213 feet, that’s what it’s like!

The unofficial, photo opp spot for the mileage marker is the Albert Mountain Fire Tower.

The fire tower was built in 1951 to protect the Coweeta Basin from fire. The structure is 40 foot tall steel with a 14 x 14 “room” on top. It was the last of its kind built in western North Carolina.

After hanging at the tower for a while with others we headed down hill.

Funny enough, as you see, written on the fire tower is the 100 mile mark, but, it’s actually about 2 tenths of a mile north.

We continued down to the shelter where we had planned on staying, by this time, my feet were hurting and my right calve muscle was telling me I should not just think about stopping but should definitely stop. Then, we get to the shelter, long branch, mile102.1 and 4,431 feet. It was a horrible place to put a tent. The shelter was very nice and pretty new, but tent spaces were not good. So, I told my feet that they needed to push on a few more miles, and they did, one more mile to an area called Glassmine Gap mile 103 (4,162 feet).

AT Thru-Hike Day 12

We slept in late today knowing we had only 6.4 miles to hike to get to the road for our pickup at Winding Stair Gap.

We left from Glassmine Gap mile 103.0 and headed to Winding Stair Gap mile 109.4, we ascended 1,020 feet and ascended 1,532 feet. Pretty easy day all around.

We made our way down to Rock Gap Shelter (3,797 feet) and came around a bend to see the privy. When I say we saw the privy, I mean right inside of it!! Glad no one was sitting on the toilet when we went by or we would have seen right in there!!

The shelter was super cool in that, it had on the wall a big sign made by a 3rd grade class from a school in Cashiers, NC. The sign was titled, “Dangers of the Trail”. It listed about 14 or so things lurking in the forest that could shorten a Thru hike attempt!

Leaving the shelter and heading into Rock Gap (3,735 feet) we saw a group of cars with hikers standing around, this usually means one of two things, “trail magic” or “water”, this one was trail magic!!! Banana’s!!!! Oh, and some candy and donuts, and boy were they covered in sugar and other things that made me feel horrible after eating them!!

Going up and over another hill, passed a road leading to Standing Indian Campground we began climbing, and this would be our final climb for the week before descending down into Winding Stair Gap (3,688 feet).

Here we ran into “Snoopy” again, a trail angel who we had seen a day earlier, he is following along with his wife, “Hiking Hobbit”, who injured herself on Blood Mountain, some 80 miles back!!! Good on her for pushing on after that fall!

We weren’t there for 2 minutes before my dad and stepmom showed up!