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!

Suzanna drove me back out to Unicoi Gap to get back on the trail. There were van loads of hikers unloading when we got there. It took us 5.8 miles to catch up to them since we stayed around at the gap taking pictures of Blue Blaze beer cans. Blue Blaze is an AT themed brewery in west Charlotte, it’s actually where Kelly and I met.

We hiked 2.7 miles, up and over Rocky Mountain to Indian Grave Gap. From there we hiked up Tray Mountain and started back down and stopped at Tray Mountain Shelter, for an additional 3.2 miles and 1,300 feet!

There were several amazing views along the way.

Next we hiked up and over Tray Mountain, a 1.8 mile journey up 600 feet and down 1,200 feet! In hiking, uphills wreck havoc on the thighs, butt, and claves. What the uphills don’t get on the legs, the downhills do! Then we went up and down, up and over for the next three miles to Sassafras Gap! Here we set up camp, ate and waited for the sun to go down before calling it a night.

Life on the Appalachian trail is wonderful, it, for the most part, runs north to south and therefore, every evening and every morning has its sunsets and sunrises!

Today as the first time that my feet started hurting. It feels like with ever step I take my feet stretch. Not sure if it’s planter fasciitis or just stress of walking 8-10 miles per day. I have rolled it with my cork ball after diner and will see how the 6.4 miles feels tomorrow.

AT Thru-Hike, Day 8

Slept horrible last night! Not sure if it was because I was in a bed the three nights previous or what!

We left Sassafras Gap headed for Dicks Creek Gap, a 6.3 mile hike for the day, from mile 62.9 to mile 69.2. We ascended 1,577 feet, and descended 2,351 feet, the total grade was 615 feet per mile.

It was not the toughest of days but it was a lot like life, up and down!!

The first climb, basically right after getting out of bed, was up Kelly Knob, (4,144 feet) and it was 800 feet in .9 miles.

One thing I try hard to do when I’m hiking is to not stop mid climb, now obviously if it’s 2 miles of climb, that’s different! I like to make the climb and the enjoy the reward, the view, well, and some water!

From this beautiful view, we headed down the mountain to check out the Deep Gap Shelter (3,454 feet), where we sat for a few minutes and used the privy. 🙂 Way better than digging a 6 inch cat hole! :-0

We continued up and down the trail to Powell Mountain Vista (3,886 feet), what an amazing view!!

North we went, for 3 plus miles to Dicks Creek Gap (2,654 feet). Here we waited for George and Sherrie Warren, my stepmoms dad and stepmom to pick us up. We rode into Clayton, Ga. with them to stay at their house, and while there they loaned us Charlie’s (the lab) car, it’s the car he can ride in, hahah and we went into town to Outdoor76 and grab some Mexican food. We went into Walgreens to get some stuff for Kelly and I checked to see if they had any no show COVID-19, and they did, so I got my second vaccine! I’m not a vaccine guy but being out here with all of these people and going into all these towns, I thought it best to go ahead and get it.

AT Thru-Hike Day 9

Dicks Creek Gap (2,654 feet) Mile 69.2 to Mile 81, Muskrat Shelter ( 4,567 feet) we ascended 4,251 feet and descended 2,364 feet!

We had originally planned to only go about 8.5 miles, but when we were almost to that gap, someone told us there was Nora Virus in the water and we wanted nothing to do with that!

We stopped in after hiking 4.5 miles we stopped at Plumorchard Shelter (3,008 feet). It was a super cool shelter with three levels! There was a sign on the wall that showed a shelter being lowered in by helicopter and we assumed that is how it got there.

When we walked up to the shelter, we were greeted by the most loving, giant dog!! His name is Diesel, his mom isn’t sure, but I think he is a wolf dog!

From plumorchard we made our way to the North Carolina/ Georgia border (3,885 feet). We were in need of water, I finished off 5.5 liters, and we were climbing up the side of Sharp Top Mountain and saw some folks standing around, we got excited it was water, but it wasn’t water, it was NC!!

From here, the plan was to hike to Bly Gap Shelter (3,820 feet), and this is where the supposed case of the Nora Virus came from. We changed our plan and hiked on to Muskrat creek Shelter (4,567 feet), mile 81.0. This added 1,443.6 feet to our ascension!!

We hung at the shelter and set up our kitchen, cooked our dinner, ate, and then headed back to the tent to lay down.

Laying down, it was cloudy, waking up it was bright sunny blue skies.