Category: Long Distance Trails

Start: Wayah Gap (AT mi 115.3). Stop: Nantahala Outdoor Center (AT mi 136.7). Today’s miles: 21.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 2077.8 miles.

I slept nice and cozy in my shed with the electric heater Fish and Rachel gave me to use. I got up on time and quickly got ready, eating breakfast in the little shed before heading up to the bathhouse to brush my teeth. Fish was ready right at 8am and we started the almost hour drive to Wayah Gap. It was a beautiful drive, mostly along the river until the road wound high up in the mountains-all of the fall colors popping.

Fish dropped me off just before 9am and I started my northbound trek back to the NOC. I had over 21 miles to cover and needed to be done by the time mom got there to pick me up. It had already started raining. I was prepared though, wearing my rain gear and toting my waterproof day pack. Plus, I had my new fleece hoodie on under the rain jacket, and my gloves were on, too.

Pretty quickly I made my way to Wayah Bald and the rock firetower there. Sadly, I was in a cloud and all of my views were socked in. As sad as I was, it was almost a good thing, because it kept me moving! I carried on and missed view point after view point with my numb and wet toes and cold fingers. Even with the gloves on it was hard to keep them warm. The trail was pretty though, with its shiny wet leaves in an array of burnt oranges, yellows, and deep reds. Some of them looked like they were tie dyed.. which then made me miss TieDye the man. Weird how your thoughts go some times.

I listened to the audiobook, “The Great Alone” and at some point towards the end I was blubbering like an idiot and thankful for the rain masking my tears. Not that I saw people to explain myself to.. I literally only saw one man the whole day. And my crying episode was well over by then! But this book was such a good one, although I do tend to say that about every book I read or listen to. I think it’s because I appreciate the work and effort the author had to have put into it to create it, so it makes me like almost everything I read.

Close to 4pm, the clouds started to part and let the sunshine come through. At the firetower at Wesser Bald had no views, but once down a bit farther, just starting down the steep descent into the NOC, the views were incredible! The trail was exposed and rocky, reminding me of southern Maine a little bit (just not as difficult to maneuver down), and I could see for miles all around. I just stood there for awhile, taking in the beauty and thanking God for letting me have these views.

I continued downwards and soon found myself back into the woods. I tried to hurry, thinking about the logistics of getting my pack back from Fish without holding him and Rachel up for any Friday night plans they may have had. And-I didn’t eat lunch. I’m so sick of peanut butter tortillas that I couldn’t even force myself to make it today, let alone eat it. Usually I’d be willing, just to shut my stomach up and get rid of the weight, but not today. I couldn’t do it.

I made it to the NOC just after 5:15pm. I text Fish and then went to the other little restaurant in town and sat down for a couple appetizers to hold me over until mom and I got dinner later. It ended up being a bowl of black bean chili and some Parmesan fries. I took my time and Fish came to meet me for a few. He and Rachel did indeed have plans, a Halloween party.. I didn’t want to hold them up and so I declined the offer of a shower at their place.

Once I finished eating, I paid my tab and walked with him to his Jeep and got my pack. Mom would only be 45 minutes, so I left my pack outside of the outfitter and walked inside to piddle. I bought a new buff (an AT one, because why not?), and got warm. Once I could feel every digit on my hands and feet (although my feet were still wet), I headed outside to sit down, back leaned against the store wall, and worked on the blog.

Before I got very far at all, a man and his wife stopped to chat with me about the trail and to see if I needed them to take me somewhere. I explained my mom would be showing up any minute, and then we got into the trail talk-he completed the AT a few years ago and he remembers the cold days and wanting to get off trail and quit a couple times, but his wife refused to let him-knowing it would eat him up inside and she’d have to let him try again later.. she said,“better to just let him get it all done at once and not have to deal with the sadness that comes after not making it..” I think she’s pretty spot on. Sometimes lately, being so close to home, those pesky thoughts creep into my head about quitting, but I’m so close that it would be absolutely ridiculous to succumb to those thoughts. But cold and wet weather can burrow deep into my thoughts sometimes.

As we were swapping stories, my mom appeared right on time! I jumped up and ran to hug her! We tossed my gear in her SUV and then after I got inside and she turned the heat up for me! Then, she rolled the windows down and began to gag so badly I thought she might actually throw up. Apparently, I stunk. And pretty badly, too. Hahaha! This still makes me laugh, because I knew she’d be dramatic about it.. I hiked in the pouring rain, my shoes and socks were the main smelly culprits.. which I promptly took off once in the car, making her wretch even more.

Laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, I put them in the back floor board as she drove off with all the windows down. When she saw me shivering, while still laughing, she rolled them back up-but I swear she didn’t breathe through her nose the whole way to the hotel. It was a good 45 minutes to get there.. and we laughed and talked the whole way. Every now in then she’d make a face and I’d know she just got another accidental whiff.

We checked in and I put my stuff on the patio of the hotel room (which was located right on the Tuskegee River, so absolutely gorgeous), and then I took a long, hot shower.. hoping to scrub away the hiker trash smell. I got dressed in pjs mom brought me, and then we ordered a pizza and went to pick it up. Back at the room, we ate it and watched our Braves beat the Astros while I worked on getting a blog post or two up.

I’m so happy she’s here! And our hotel room is so perfect for a comfortable, happy zero tomorrow. Anyway, tomorrow will be my last zero of this trek I’m on.. I’m almost home! I can’t believe it. Goodnight, yall.

I slept in until almost 10am! When I finally woke up, mom had me a plate of hot breakfast food waiting. We ate on the patio overlooking the river and it was the most serene. We had our coffee and talked while I worked on getting the blog up to date. It gets so tedious when you get behind.

Eventually I got too cold sitting outside, so I laid back in bed and we watched movies while I worked. We stayed like that until just after 2pm when we decided to go to downtown Sylva and walk around. Before getting there, we took a detour to Franklin so I could resupply. I got everything I needed and then we made our way to Sylva and parked on Main Street. We laughed, took pictures, went into consignment shops, books stores, and coffee shops. We had so much fun! This was the absolute highlight of my day, simply enjoying the time spent together.

We ate dinner at a fancy little place right on the Main Street strip. It was mostly very good, but the steaks were so overpriced and honestly, the quality of the meat sucked. I’ve had way better steaks for half the price. But, we both enjoyed the ambiance and the company of each other, so the fact that the steak was mediocre couldn’t deter our happiness.

We headed back to the hotel, with desserts in boxes to eat in bed later. We put on pjs and watched a movie-we didn’t have a smart tv so I couldn’t get Tijuan’s movie on the screen, and mom didn’t want to watch a movie on my phone-so we watched the regular tv, commercials and all-and I downloaded “Horror Noire” to watch on my own, soon. After our movie ended, we turned on the World Series and yelled and cheered like we were at home at the game! Braves won! We only need one more win and the Braves win the World Series! Wahoo!

We stayed up late and once the game ended our lights were out-minutes later I’m pretty sure we were both asleep. Just a perfect day. All around!

Start: Wayah Gap (AT mi 115.3). Stop: Stealth Site (AT mi 96). Today’s miles: 19.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 2097.1 miles.

Mom woke me up at 8am and we walked to the lobby for the included breakfast. I got biscuits and gravy and two pancakes. We ate and then by 8:30 we were back in our room, packing. I can’t believe our time together was over so fast! I had asked mom on Friday how she felt about leaving late on Sunday and slack packing me, so I could make up some miles. Because of the incredible woman she is, she agreed.

She dropped me off at Wayah Gap with my day pack, and the plan would be for her to meet me at Mooney Gap to get my pack and then keep hiking 1-4.7 more miles (depending on time). While I was hiking, she’d be out exploring the mountainside towns and country roads, for roughly 7 hours. It worked beautifully. After making sure she had the address of where to meet me between 4-5pm, we hugged and I was off.

It was cold and acted like it was going to rain, but it only misted here and there during the morning before robins egg blue skies showed up to stay for the rest of the day. I was shocked at how easily the terrain was going by, I never once felt winded and even on inclines per the elevation map-they didn’t really feel like climbs at all.

The morning stayed damp in the deep woods with the hint of views between the trees at times. I didn’t really get any views until almost 4pm at the fire tower on top of Albert Mountain. I finally had a reason to climb a fire tower! And I was so thrilled I did.. the views were spectacular! If I didn’t have mom waiting on me at a road crossing several miles away, I would have stayed up there longer, but knowing she was waiting and couldn’t start her 2.5 hour drive home until I got there, I got pictures and video, then made a dash out of there.

The climb up to Albert was a good climb I had forgotten about, it did make me wonder how long the climbing would last but it wasn’t hard by a long shot. However, coming down the other side was rocky and slippery from the damp conditions, and it slowed me down more than I expected it to. I had been cruising along all day at 3 miles per hour, and then that chunk made me get to mom 30 minutes after I thought I would.. still, 4:30 was within the window I told her, but I was secretly aiming for 4 so she’d have more sunlight on her way home.

When I got to Mooney Gap, she wasn’t there. I started to panic a little-then realized I had service. She was there within a couple minutes.. she had gone to get me a Mountain Dew and Reece’s cups to have as a snack before she left. It hit the spot! I repacked my day pack into the big pack, filtered water I had in my CNOC bag, and then we said our sad goodbyes. We hugged and I was off.

The terrain was still relatively easy, even with my full pack and 4 days of food in it. I decided I was skipping the first campsite a mile after the road crossing, and aiming to get to Carter’s Gap shelter. However, 2.5 miles into the late afternoon.. I saw a gorgeous stealth site with pristine views and a perfect bear hanging tree for my food. I thought about continuing on, it was close to 6pm, I had my headlamp in my hip belt.. but then I figured I should stay and enjoy this site and the sunset.. my camping days on this trail are coming to an end.. I plan to finish November 6th at Amicalola State Park, and while shortening my miles may make that turn into November 7th.. the days of camping on the AT during my first thru hike are almost over.

So, I stayed. I threw my food line first, then set up my tent. Once everything was unpacked, I put on some layers and went to cook my dinner sitting on a rock with a stunning view of some mountains. The sun was setting on the other side of the mountain I was sitting on.. but watching the colors of the sky change in front of me was just as special as seeing the sunset from the other side. I ate as the sky changed to a pink hue, then slowly changed to navy blue and then black with stars twinkling. By this point I was shivering, so I hung up my food then got strait into my sleeping bag.

I’m huddled here now, chilly but comfortable because of the heavy sleeping bag. I’m hoping my phone finishes charging quickly so I can unplug it and get some shut eye. I’m going to do my best to get up early tomorrow and bare the cold so I can get at least 22 miles in, if not a bit further. TownLegs, who I haven’t seen in MONTHS, is finishing soon (the next couple days I’m pretty sure), and her husband is in Hiawasee waiting to pick her up at the finish. They have offered to pick me up from a road crossing to slack pack me and to have dinner with them! Because of the miles I have to make, it’s a bit tricky to work out, but I’m hoping we can make it happen! I want to hug her neck so bad!

Speaking of friends that have finished recently, I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned those that have.. Curmudgeon finished last Monday I believe, and then TBird finished the day after him.. Towelie finished today! Then it will be TownLegs followed by me, then Lizard. As long as FarOut’s knee cooperates, she and Sauce will be finishing not too long after that! Finch is finishing sometime soon too, he’s ahead of me by a day or 2 I’m pretty sure. I swear I want GPS trackers on everybody so I can find them when I want to! Lol Cactus, Butterfingers, Sounscape and Jerzy are all a day or so behind Lizard I believe, so they’ll be finishing up in November, too.

Ok. I think that’s everything for today. I’ll be done in 6 days! SIX DAYS. Just.. wow. Also, I cross into Georgia tomorrow! My goodness, I cannot believe it’s coming to an end. It feels like just yesterday that I started, and also like I’ve been out here for years simultaneously. Ah, anyway..Goodnight, y’all. Sweet dreams and stay warm!