So Far, So Good

I woke up at about 7 o'clock, and the weather was still well below freezing. So cold and so windy. I just decided to get up and get the hell out of there and start walking. I made myself a cup of coffee, and I left the last sip for maybe five minutes. By the time I got back to it, it was frozen. That was a good sign that I needed to get moving.

The dregs of my water froze

The nice thing is that the hike out of Stover Creek, where I stayed the first night, is just absolutely gorgeous. It follows a stream, and it goes through a rhododendron grove, and it's just nice and gradual and brown and green. It’s a really lovely hike. But it’s short-lived, because once you cross over a stream, it's some pretty steep uphill. About seven miles in, I stopped and ate lunch (bagel with peanut butter and Easy Cheese) at a place called Horse Gap.

At that point, I had Sassafras Mountain ahead of me. I think there's a phrase, “Sassafras kicked my ass.” Which wasn’t entirely true. I managed to get some fluid in me and get up it in reasonable time. But then the rest of the day was just ups and downs and trying to muster the energy to make the full 13 miles.

At about mile ten, in a different gap — these gaps all have areas where people leave their cars to go day hiking — this guy, who’s a former AT thru-hiker, was handing out food. I ate an apple, and it was amazing, and it gave me the energy to kind of power through the final three and a half miles. I think I got to the Gooch Mountain campsite at about 6 o'clock.

It was really crowded. This is peak “bubble,” and the reason it was so crowded by six p.m. was that some hikers have been leaving from a place called Hawk Mountain. I think a lot of people don't hike the approach trail, so they just hike straight from Springer Mountain. So, Springer to Hawk is about eight, and then Hawk to Gooch Mountain is about eight. That's sort of the “prescribed” days. Instead, I did ten and a half on day one, and then 13 today. Basically, they had a shorter hike, so they got here quite a bit earlier than me.

So that was a little bit demoralizing, I guess. I set up my tent on a pretty questionable spot, and by 8 o'clock, I’d eaten dinner (freeze dried beef stew; the meatballs stayed crunchy; not recommended), and it was time for bed. Still pretty darn cold.

I’m realizing now that I brought way too much food. But that will sort itself out as I eat my way through it, and now I know for when I go into town to resupply. Still — here comes another obvious observation — it's amazing how much energy food provides. That sounds really silly, I know. But when you're flagging, pulling over and getting a snack before moving on makes all the difference in the world.

And a tip for anyone who’s thinking about doing this and using Smart Water bottles, make sure to bring an extra cap with you. Almost lost one. Thankfully, I was able to locate it, but that could have been problematic.

The experience of sleeping on an air mattress, with an air pillow... it's definitely different. It's kind of like trying to sleep in a bouncy house every night.

The pillow squirts out from under my head, and the mattress isn’t easy to maneuver. Once you find the right spot, it's comfortable, but moving from one position to the next is sort of a gamble. It’s one I've taken many times now, and sometimes it works out, and sometimes, it doesn't. So that's taken some getting used to. Unfortunately, these are the lightweight options. I guess I could avoid these issues by lugging a mattress around with me, but that's obviously not going to happen.

People have been friendly, and I've definitely preferred to stay on the periphery a little bit, though I’ll engage in a conversation here and there. But overall, so far, so good.