Day 5: 6.9 miles hiked (trail mile 38.2)
We spent the morning preparing for the next stretch of our hike. We picked up groceries at Ingles and a couple gear items at WalMart. The thruhike resupply method is so contrary to how we shop in normal life that it’s comical. As a thruhiker you buy the lightest weight, individually packaged, highest salt and fat content, unrefrigerated goods you can find. I also got a second ankle compression sleeve! We are still trying to solve the mystery of the missing tent pole.
Dave made us his “McDavid” breakfast sandwich specialty along with apple juice. Laura joined us for a 7-mile slack pack between Hog Pen and Neels Gap. Slack packing is when someone hikes with a daypack while their gear stays at the lodging. In the most common scenario, a hostel may shuttle a group of hikers anywhere from 10 to 30 (or more!) miles up the road and let them hike back to the hostel; the next day the hikers are shuttled back to the spot they were dropped the day before and carry on north. It’s a nice way to cover some higher miles without the weight of a pack. It is amazing to get this opportunity so early in our trek.
The weather was nice in town but by the time we reached the trail we were back in that same cold, soupy fog from the day before. It was fun sharing the hiking experience with Laura, and we crossed paths with several hikers, including Matt and James. We shared some of our snacks with James, who told us this was his first trail magic! Halfway through the hike the sun came out, and we had a wonderful hike down to Neels Gap where Dave awaited us in the Klugenwagen.
Back at the Airbnb we finalized our meal plan for the next week, rethreaded a tent pole that had lost its stretchiness, and enjoyed a delicious home-cooked meal of Risotto, asparagus, and blanched kale. After dinner Dave kindled a fire in the outdoor fireplace and we spent a couple hours soaking up the warmth together.
Day 6: 14.3 miles hiked (trail mile 52.5)
This morning we baked some Annie’s cinnamon rolls. It was another slackpacking day! It feels incredible to be able to still cover miles while also allowing our bodies a couple days of reprieve from the heavy winter-packs. After breakfast, Dave dropped us off at Unicoi Gap at mile marker 52.5 for a 14 mile trek back south to Hog Pen Gap. With light packs we covered ground relatively quickly. It started out a bright and beautiful day but about halfway through the hike the fog and chilly drizzle had returned.
When we finished the hike much earlier than expected, we texted Laura and Dave and waited all bundled up and perched on a log. Laura picked us up and we gassed up at an antique pump at the Sunrise Grocery. It was an eclectic old gas station owned by a nature photographer hobbyist who has transformed the station into something very special, complete with a photo gallery, fresh produce outdoors, and lots of neat odds and ends. He was stoking a fire to the side of the gas station, making boiled peanuts in a giant cast iron pot. We ordered 2 bags of fresh boiled peanuts and devoured them immediately upon return to the Airbnb, amazed by how completely delicious these warm, wet salt-bombs are.
This evening Laura and Dave made gnocchi with blanched kale and beyond meat sausages. We spent the rest of the time packing for the week ahead on the trail. At the moment we’re bagging food for each day in its own labeled zip lock so we can keep track of our food consumption and make sure we have enough for the last day of each stretch.
Day 7: 9.6 miles hiked (trail mile 62.1)
Our last morning with Laura and Dave. Before leaving, Chris got to try Dave’s Occulus AR headset (and loved it). A nice bit of digital fun before returning to the woods. They dropped us at the trail at Unicoi Gap and we said our goodbyes.
The trail took us directly up Tray Mountain, and we decided to break at the top for lunch. While lunching in the shelter, we met a woman who told us that she had received a diagnosis when she was younger that she would never be able to walk due to her club feet, but underwent an experimental treatment and is now testing her limits by hiking the AT. She is taking it slow, but seems determined. We also met Dr Who, an experienced hiker and friend of Rocky’s who she had told us we might run into. We briefly considered sleeping at Tray Mountain shelter but read a review on Guthooks (the map app we’re using) and received advice from other hikers that the shelter was no good in bad weather. Considering the high chances for sleet/snow/rain tonight we decided to push on.
The next shelter was a bit too far for comfort, so we found a spot tucked in the thick of a dogwood grove, just past Swag of the Blue Ridge. Our little stealth campsite is charming, and the little leafy trees should provide some shelter from the wind. This is our first night with. No other campers in the immediate vicinity, although we passed another rogue tent maybe 200 yards back. At Dr. Who’s suggestion I found a springy branch about the width of our missing top tent pole and whittled it so that it would serve as a suitable replacement; it worked! We also heard back from Big Agnes and they are going to send us a replacement pole for free!
We boiled Knorr Spanish Rice in our titanium pot and added nutritional yeast, hemp, and pumpkin seeds. It exceeded expectations (delicious and cheap!) and the heat warmed us after a day in the low 30’s.
Our first night bear bagging on the trail proved challenging. We tried using the PCT method and it took us nearly an hour to get the bag hung because it’s so heavy carrying a weeks resupply for two people. It is hanging rather low but was the best we could do tonight so hopefully a bear doesn’t make off with it.
Day 8: 7.1 miles hiked (trail mile 69.2)
We woke up slowly. It’s hard to find the motivation to get out of our cozy down quits in freezing temperatures. It only rained a couple hours last night so the slow start allowed our tent to dry out before we stuffed it in its sack. Then, sweet relief, our food made it through the night! We set out around 9:30 and enjoyed feeling the sun’s warmth pricking our skin through our clothes. One by one we were able to peel off our fleece and wool base layers. Not too far in we ran into a couple who said they, too, struggled to find a good tree to bear bag on; they had ended up just tying the food to a tree trunk and saying, “screw it, the bear can have it.” We had nearly reached this point, too, so were glad to hear we weren’t the only ones struggling.
We had used the PCT method where you use a special carabiner and knot combo to suspend the food in such a way that the extra line just hangs slack; to retrieve the food a person must pull on the line and unclip the carabiner. So, if the bag is hung high enough and far out enough on a branch the food is practically impossible for a bear to steal. In the standard method, which entails hoisting the bear bag and tying the line to a nearby tree, some bears have learned that all they must do is swipe at the line and the food comes crashing down. However, because of the shared weight of our food bags, any future bear bagging will have to be the traditional method and we will keep our fingers crossed we don’t meet any extra savvy bears.
It was a beautiful day for hiking: cool and sunny. We enjoyed a creative lunch of tortillas filled with peanut butter, dried cranberries (a jam substitute), banana chips and honey-roasted sesame sticks.
At some point what had been only a dull discomfort in my left knee on the downhills became too painful to ignore. Our bodies are complaining about the physical stress of challenging terrain, constantly either climbing or descending, and the miles. We told ourselves all along that we will listen to our bodies and let ourselves acclimate to the trail at our own pace, so when we heard of a hiker hostel called Hostel Around the Bend that would pick up hikers from Dicks Creek Gap we decided to take the opportunity to rest.
As we waited for our ride, we snacked on fresh fruit from a trail angel family from Kentucky. Their 12-year-old daughter had hiked 800 miles with them last year before they decided as a family that they would prefer to make the switch from thru-hikers to trail angels, and have been doing this ever since, all up and down the trail.
Bear picked us up in a large white shuttle van and we got moved into our private room at the hostel (one in a row of converted ready-made sheds consisting of two twin beds). At 4pm I joined a hiker shuttle into Clayton for a resupply run. In town I got more toilet paper, knee support, ankle support for Chris, an impossible burger with tots, and some snacks. It was fun getting to know Heath, Scott, and Dr Who as we ate dinner at the local bar. Chris took the opportunity while I was away to do some yoga and stretching. We ate dinner in our room, Chris had a shower, and we called it a night.
Later, feeling (perhaps unreasonably) suspicious of the heavy-duty propane ‘Buddy Heater’ in our tiny dwelling, which the owner pointed out was new, and that he had installed a carbon monoxide alarm “just in case”, we ended up opening up the windows to the winter-night air, and sleeping under our quilts to keep warm.
