Start: The Priest Shelter (AT mi 829.7). Stop: Hog Camp Gap (AT mi 815.4). Today’s miles: 14.3 miles Total AT mileage: 1377.7 miles
Well, all my hoopla about nothing less than 15 miles didn’t withstand today.. although 14.3 is pretty dang close! The bugs and mugginess just did me in today. It’s technically only 5pm as I’m writing this out, but I don’t care.. I’m not going up and over nothing else today. Period.
I got up at 7. I slept pretty well considering going to bed thinking I’d be scaring away bears all night. That never happened.. although even between owl hoots and hollers, I did get out of my tent to pee-twice. I was kicking myself for chugging so much water at dinner, but it was RIGHT THERE and so easy to grab, that I couldn’t help myself.
I left my pack at the sign pointing to the shelter and then headed down the side trail to get my food bag and eat breakfast. The two guys from last night were just about to start hiking themselves! They said their night went smoothly, too. I had joked with them last night that if I got too spooked I was going to grab my sleeping bag and pad and walk down there to sleep in between them.. they retorted that I better make sure to announce myself so they didn’t throw rocks at me.. haha.. so this morning we were all laughs about how well we all slept even though we were all slightly on edge.
They left as I got my food down. I went ahead and filtered another bottle of water, to start off with 2 liters. Every comment in the app I use mentioned how everything is either dry or a slow trickle, so I didn’t want to get myself into a pickle. Then I ate my Poptart and headed back up the hill to my pack. I got my food bag in and was on the trail by 8:05. Not too shabby.
The trail was basically multiple ups and downs through very thick woods that would occasionally lighten up and give a view before going back into the darkness of the tree cover. There were quite a bit of gravel like rocks, almost like the trail maintenance people poured out bags of pea gravel and let everyone kick it around. So while it’s not “difficult” to walk on, it is annoying as hell.. especially when you step center foot on a rough edged one. Ouch.
Today felt more like the Rollercoaster than the actual Rollercoaster did. Maybe it was because my body is sore from so many big days in a row, and with yesterday being so tough at the end, I didn’t expect much out of today. I’m not sure, but I know I went down up and over 7 blips on the elevation map today, and I flat out refused to go over the last 2 to get me to where I had originally planned to camp. These ups weren’t hard. The downs weren’t either. But it was muggy and hot and the bugs were making me a lunatic.
I practically lived in the bug net, and when my head is sweaty and the air already feels thick, the bug net sets off my mild claustrophobia. It felt like I was suffocating at times. I’d pull it off in a huff and wipe my face with my too damp bandana, and immediately be swarmed with gnats, mosquitos, flies, or bees. Highly frustrating. Even sitting here now, they are absolutely everywhere, making me consider getting into my tent before dinner..
Anyway, enough complaining! I passed my shelter guys some time around 9-9:30. They seem Uber impressed with my speed, which I find amusing since all of my friends are faster than me, but I appreciated the compliment regardless. Shortly before 11, I passed two other men hiking northbound. They told me water was coming up on the trail and I should fill up there, because the water after that one was far off trail. I thanked them and then did exactly that.
While my water was filtering, I sat on a rock and tried to eat a probar for a snack. It was too early for lunch but I was hungry already. I got half of it down before I started gagging like I did the last time I tried to eat one back in Maine. I guess probars are out the window now. I just can’t stomach them anymore. This one was Blueberry Muffin, too-my favorite. Because of the bar I was nauseous for a couple hours afterwards. I tried a piece of airhead candy every now and then to see if it was better, but I just felt cruddy.
At the top of one of the many lumps I covered today, I did sit and eat my lunch-on another rock. It was about 12:30, and while I still had an uneasy stomach, I handled the peanut butter tortilla just fine. And then, I had another one-just to be sure. I stayed there for thirty minutes or so, before deciding to carry on. At this point, I was still planning to get to my original destination.
Then, sometime after 2, I looked on my app and saw a motel that would pick up from the area I was aiming towards.. it was just slightly farther than my original destination. Maybe a motel bed, air conditioning, and something better than trail food would make me feel better and perk up my mood. I checked the time and figured I’d have enough time to get to the parking lot by 6 or 6:30 at the latest. I decided that if I called and he had a room available AND would come get me-it was a sign I should go.
No one answered the phone. For some reason, this just depleted my soul. I was so sad! When I got to the top of the blip I was going up, I looked at my maps again and decided then that I wasn’t going over the next 2 if the field at the bottom of this current one had water at its stream. And then, I flung my pack off and laid in the grass under a tree. For almost an hour. It was the best part of my whole day! And I had a gorgeous view, too.
As I was laying around, still swatting at bugs every 3-5 seconds of course, I realized that I drank most of my water, banking on this stream having some. But if it didn’t, I’d have 2 gulps-hardly-to get me over those last 2 blips and several miles downhill to the next water source. Welp. That gave me some energy! Time to get a move on.
I popped up and hiked down the less than a mile to the field at the bottom of the current little mountain. It’s a beautiful meadow with apple trees and many others all around. I found where I wanted to camp, sat my pack down, and took my water bottles, water bag, and filter the 0.3 miles to the stream. Thank the sweet Lord there was water there!
I filtered my 2 bottles and then filled up the bag again. It has holes that I’m still “patching” albeit poorly.. so it leaks everywhere. I brought it all back up the hill to my camp and then set to work using the bag and filter as a mini shower to wash my legs off. Between the bugs, heat rash bumps, and spider webs, I may come close to losing my mind out here. When I get some decent service I need to google the temperature required for none of those things to be out and about.
While my legs dried off, I set up my tent and threw my bear line. Then changed my clothes and unpacked everything. It’s breezy here, so hopefully my clothes dry out some. I can only pray. I walked around the area, checking it all out.. I ate a couple bites of one of the apples, I don’t think they’re quite ripe yet. And now I’m just waiting for it to be a bit later so I can make dinner and then head to bed.
Because I stopped short, I won’t be getting into Glasgow tomorrow evening.. it’ll be the following day and that day will be a short day, which I’m happy about. The same guy that runs the last hostel I stayed at also owns one in Glasgow, too.. so I plan to stay there and maybe slackpack the next day. I’ll have to see what they offer and how it’ll work out.
Either way, I’m looking forward to town food. I think I’m getting sick of everything I eat out here.. but I’m too nervous to try new things in case they make me sick, and these things are light as can be.. so, it’s just what I have to deal with. There’s also a couple places to get picked up tomorrow, so if I get too miserable, I may do that. But I’ll try to be good and consider saving some money by getting to the hostel the following day instead of a motel tomorrow. Motels at best are $60-75 a night, the hostel is $30. Eh, I guess we’ll all see which will win, frugality or comfort. At this point it could go either way!