Wind 

Snow

Ice

Cold

Nights like that have me wondering if I want to do another 6 months 

McKay and lulu 

Jk with dog

Family thru hiking 

All the layers did nothing to fight the cold last night. The wind howled all night, gusting over 40 mph, blowing my hammock this way and that. I got up once to re-set a tarp stake that pulled loose. But when I woke up again and saw all 6 stakes had pulled free, I just rolled over and gave up. I just put my head inside my sleeping bag and tried to catch a few more minutes of sleep. 

I got out of my hammock at roughly the same time Emma (the woman from NC) did. “Were you freezing last night??” She yelled over wind. When I told her I was she said, with no hesitation. “I don’t know if I want to do 6 more months of this.” Good morning to you too. 

I was so cold packing up that I skipped breakfast and opted to just get going and get my heart rate up. Still dressed in all my layers I waved goodbye to everyone and set out over the now icy landscape. 

Twice I slipped on ice with stiff joints and came close to rolling my ankle each time. I ended up shuffling slowly down the trail, focused more on staying up right than on making progress. 

3 miles in, I saw another shelter and pulled in for breakfast. I ate as McKay, a hiker from GA, packed up and we chatted about how we got here. He had apparently wanted to quit his job to do the hike last year, but he timed it wrong. He ended up spending the next year working at a restaurant waiting until it was time to start walking. He expected to use the year to plan, but instead crammed all that planning into the last few weeks. I nodded attentively and stuffed my face with oatmeal as he spoke. 

We left at different times and once again, I found myself walking through beautiful wilderness with no sounds around me. The wind had died down to a light breeze and when I stopped, the only noises that came back to me were the sounds of squirrels running through the crunchy leaves. 

I was in the midst of listening to this nothingness when I heard from behind me, “I’m about to drink this unfiltered water. Think that’s a bad idea?”

I looked behind me to see a man holding a Nalgene to his lips, with a dog following obediently behind him. 

“I mean, you’re probably fine,” I said “but I’d definitely recommend filtering it if you can.”

JJ let me know he didn’t have a filter but was grateful when I offered to filter it for him. 

“You’d think with a pack of this size, I’d have a filter. But nope.” I looked over and saw the biggest pack I’d ever seen. It clearly weighed over fifty pounds. JJ explained that he had driven down to Florida to see family. But instead he had just gone to the beach and gotten drunk. 

Not knowing what else to do, he drove his car to the start and wasn’t really expecting to see it again. So he had just grabbed everything he could carry from it. Now that he had carried it all for a few miles, he was planning to leave as much as he could in the next town he got to.

JJ, McKay and I reunited for lunch. We sat there eating our peanut butter sandwiches when a family of 7 arrived. All with official AT thru hiker tags. All of them, from the youngest who looked to be around 7, to the parents, were planning on walking to Maine. A sultry teenager sat off to the side as the rest of the family passed around cheese and crackers and peanut butter tortillas. 

Lunch was at my original target for the day. But it wasn’t even noon yet, and it was too cold to just sit around, so I kept going. There was a camp ground in 6 miles that I was aiming for. 

Until a man passed me and said “there’s going to be some trail magic at Gooch Gap. Dinners at 6!” That shelter was only 2 miles past where I was heading. To gooch gap shelter we go! 

The trail grew steep and I found myself pausing more and more frequently. No matter how much water I drank, I didn’t seem to be enough. 

I reached into my bag for the secret sauce — candy! A few handfuls of licorice later and I was cruising to the shelter. Ready to drop my bag down, a ranger asked me if I was stopping here or at the dinner. I looked at her in confusion. I thought the dinner was here?

Nope, another mile up that way! 

I came to the dinner exhausted after an 8 mile day had turned to a 17 mile day. I ignored a few hellos and hung up my hammock in silence. But by the time the taco bar opened, I completely forgot about all sleepiness. 

I piled my plate high with tacos and grabbed a seat next to a guy from western Mass. We chatted and I never knew what he was going to say next. He told me he was working for the government parks department until he got caught up in the layoffs. So he decided to take a bike trip around Baja. He bought his flight and packed his bags, but the bike didn’t fit properly in the bag. So he cancelled his flight and bought a pack. Five days later he was starting the trail. And the day after that, he got a call saying he had his job back if he wanted it. 

He laughed the whole time as he was telling me the story. When I asked him what he was going to do next, he just shrugged and laughed again. 

I tried to join the communal campfire but With a stomach full of food and 17 miles under my feet, I didn’t have the energy. I left them and crawled into bed hoping for a much warmer night. 

Key stats:

Miles: 17

Elevation gained: 

Snow on the ground tonight: none