“Absolutely In Love”

AT Day 2

Miles: 28.91

Total Miles: 62.17

(Unicoi Gap, GA)

I slept intermittently through last night, somewhat cold, but mostly just excited to be out on trail.

I was about half way up Blood Mountain when I set camp last night. I didn’t really know that when I set though. All I knew last night was that I was insanely exhausted and needed to call it a night. This morning I wanted to be back to trail by 7:30, but ultimately chose to sleep in an extra half hour or so, which put me on trail a bit closer to 8. I was still happy with this. It was so cold that making it to trail any earlier would have been uncomfortable.

As the trail continued up Blood Mountain, it just got colder and colder with the ascent. But I don’t like sweating in my trail gear if I don’t have to, so I dropped my rainpants and down jacket pretty early on. If I’d known that there was going to be frost and ice from last night on the leaves and branches, I might have held off a bit longer, but still, I feel more comfortable hiking in shorts. I move a lot more freely.

But when I stepped into the AT Shelter at the top of the mountain, there were a couple of guys in there freezing their asses off, and they remarked that it was odd to see me there in shorts. I didn’t hang around long. The secret to hiking though cold weather in shorts without freezing your ass off: don’t stop hiking; just keep moving.

Okay… so here’s maybe one of my bigger problems that I’ve run into so far. I may have mentioned it in my journal last night (I honestly don’t remember; I was so tired when I wrote that), but here’s the deal: I accidentally ended up with the wrong rain fly in my pack, and although it fits my tent, it doesn’t fit it properly, and it’s not going to hold up on trail. So it needed to be replaced.

Fortunately there was a place called Neal Gap, where there was an outdoor store, showers, and pizza. The showers and pizza may not seem relevant to this discussion, but be assured that i wasn’t going to just solve my tent problem without pizza and a hot shower. So it was convenient that there was a gear shop on trail where I could not only swap out my tent with a new one but also mail it back home, but new ultra light tents don’t come cheep. It ended up being around $400, plus the pizza and shower. Worth it when you consider that I’ll get more than 100-200 nights out of this tent, but heartbreaking that I had to drop that cash this early on the trail. But it’s not a trend that should continue.

There were maybe a half dozen other hikers at Neal Gap, and I talked with some of them for a bit. A lot of them ask where I got my trail name. Some of them I tell, and others I tell them that it’s a secret. Maybe it’ll be a story for another time if I haven’t told it on here already.

I hiked with an Austrian girl named PopTart for a few miles around noon, and it was the first time that Ive shared any miles with another hiker. It was nice, but didn’t last all that long.

There was a church group set up at a road crossing with huge quantities, but I didn’t know that they were a church group until after they insistently fed me (along with several other hikers who were there), and I started to go back to my bag. That’s when they asked if they could pray over me, and feeling like it would be rude to say “no” after the free food, I let them do their thing. It seems like a fair trade considering that they fed me a couple of sliders and a half dozen hard boiled eggs. It’s so damn hard to get protein out here that ya gotta get it when you can.

I’m absolutely in love with the trail so far. I find myself literally dancing up trail all through the day. Quite literally. It’s just amazing out here.

Oh! There was a point today where I saw a couple of day hikers with two dogs, and when I dropped down to greet one of their pups, the owner warned that “she jumps.” But I didn’t care. I opened my arms, and only then realized that she was a Stanfordshire Bull Terrier. Immediately I asked the owner if I was right, and he confirmed. I told him that my heart lives with Staffys. I see myself getting a dog after the trail, and as my last pup was a Staffy, I would like to get another. He remarked that he actually found her abandoned in the forest, and it literally led me to break down in tears after they went their separate ways. Not because of that dog specifically, but because it was the closest reminder of what it was like to have a pup, and I cannot wait to get one again. I even saw the possibility of it happening on trail, but the chances of it are low. Never know though…

I made dinner around 4 miles back at a shelter, then hiked on. I love the miles after dinner, especially if the sun is still up.

Tonight I’m camped at a hillside just past a Gap. Tomorrow it’ll be another day.

I need to start thinking about resupplying food tomorrow or the next day. Provisions are growing low.

Wormwood.