Bananas from Strangers

It’s Monday, April 1, at about 20 after six. I am at the Wesser Bald campsite, just below the peak of Wesser Bald Mountain. And it’s at mile 131.2. I hiked 10.6 miles today, which is actually low. I'm trying to ramp up my mileage a little bit, but the next campsite isn't for another six miles, and I don't think I'm ready for a 16-mile day. I’ll get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) tomorrow, and then the day after is supposed to be the toughest eight miles so far on the trail.

So, another relatively short mileage day tomorrow. But I guess that's okay? There are different schools of thought about mileage on the AT, but generally speaking, people suggest ramping up over the first two or three weeks and then increasing your daily mileage after that. So I'll have to see what I can do in the Smokies, because I hit them in about a week. Hopefully, that won't be a problem. On the one hand, I've got to listen to my body. I actually want to enjoy the hike, but on the other hand, I need to get to Maine before winter. Gotta strike that balance.

 I woke up this morning after an incredibly windy night. It was just gusting wind all night, which made it a little bit difficult to sleep. And then taking down my tent was challenging, because the gusts of wind kept threatening to rip everything out of my hands and blow it away from me.

Once I got going, though, it was a reasonably uneventful hike. I felt pretty good. It was a little foggy in the morning, so the views weren't that great. What’s been funny, or interesting, to me is that on the first climb of the day, I hit 5,000 feet — but you'd never know it. My reference point is around New England. That’s where I’ve done most of my hiking, and up there, once you get above 4,000 feet, there's not a tree in sight. You're definitely above the tree line at that point. But down here, I’m at 5,000 feet, and I'm just walking through a bunch of woods. It's interesting to see the contrast.

This is at 5,000 feet. In NH, there would be zero trees here.

Wesser Bald fire tower

A little more than eight miles in, I was at Tellico Gap and decided to take a little bit of a break, because I was going to have a big climb after that. This particular gap has a little parking lot, and people regularly do day hikes up to the peak of Wesser Bald, because there's a fire tower up there. So there were a decent number of people just milling about. I’m just sitting there, relaxing, and some guy walks up to me and hands me a banana. Normally, I’m not in the business of taking fruit from total strangers, but things are a little bit different on the Appalachian Trail.

After my break, I saddled back up and headed up Wesser Bald. Along the way, I was seeing a lot of these little blue flowers on the side of the trail. They’re really pretty, but I have no idea what they are. They look a little like phlox, but I'm not sure if that's what they are. Anyway, I kept imagining them cheering me on, because they're so bright and happy looking. I guess it's a little weird what you start to think about when you're struggling to get up a steep hill.

At the campsite, I chose a location for my tent that was laden with roots but pretty flat, because last night, I went with a tent site that was smooth but sloped. And when your tent’s on a slope, as the night progresses, things start sliding, and eventually, everything ends up at the lowest point. It's kind of annoying to keep having to shift back and forth. So this time, I set my tent up in an area with a lot of roots, but, like I said, flat. And so far, it seems like my air mattress is compensating for that. I think I made the right decision, but we'll see in the morning.

Dinner was a Knorr pasta side dish that I added a packet of chicken to. Knorr sides are a big staple of AT hikers, so I decided to try one, but I don't boil pasta for any amount of time. I just put whatever I’m cooking in my Tupperware, pour boiling water on it, seal it up, and hope that it cooks. It works nicely with ramen, and it worked just okay with the Knorr pasta. I’ll probably keep some Knorr packs in the rotation for variety, but let me tell you, the instant mashed potatoes I had last night were infinitely better. Thankfully, there are lots of different flavors, too.

Well, that's about it for now. Not a huge day tomorrow. I’ll hit the NOC, stay there to avoid the storms, and then I have a big hike on Wednesday. The weather forecast for Wednesday is kind of ugly at the moment, though, so, I'll have to play that one by year. So stay tuned.