The Unpolished Princess

Start: Walnut Mountain Road (AT mi 405.8). Stop: Mountain Harbour B&B (AT mi 395.3). Today’s miles: 10.5 miles. Total AT mileage: 1797.8 miles.

I slept so good! It was just after 8 when I got up and hopped in the shower.. mom had just started stirring. By the time I was out, she was almost ready and had her coffee made. Minutes later we were walking over to Uncle Keith and Aunt Kathy’s cabin. They were already up, ready, and watching the mist evaporate off of the water on the lake. It really was gorgeous out there.

We went back to the restaurant from yesterday and changed up our orders. Man, it was just as good as it was the day before, if not better. I got bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, plus 3 pancakes. I ate all but just a few bites. So so yummy. After eating, we headed back to the cabins so we could all pack up. Mom brought me my warmer sleeping bag, and it absolutely sucks that it takes up so much space in the bottom of my pack. I end up having to cram everything else in where it’s supposed to fit easily.. now it bulges at the top. I also sent some stuff home with mom that I haven’t needed and random things I’ve collected over the last month that I want to keep but don’t want to tote.

Once the SUV was loaded down with all of our things, Uncle Keith started the 30 minute drive to the gravel road in the mountains to drop me off, Aunt Kathy riding shotgun and mom sitting beside me. I caught myself getting increasingly sad as we drove. Then, they joked that they could just drive home with me in the car, since I had all my belongings with me-but as nice as it sounded, I knew I’d never forgive myself if I bailed this close to finishing this accomplishment. The idea of it did sound way too enticing!

When we pulled up to the AT crossing on Walnut Mountain Road, Finch was sitting there eating a snack. It worked perfectly to ease moms eeriness of me walking off into the woods alone, never mind the fact that I’ve been doing it for more than 5 months now. I introduced him to everyone and then set to telling them each bye with hugs all around. The one thing making me smile was knowing the next time I’d see them, I should be crossing under the arch at Amicalola State Park. For now, that will have to do, and it’ll motivate me to get my butt there.. sooner rather than later.

I waved bye again, then I followed after Finch, letting him stay ahead since he’d already been hiking a few hours by now. He was all warmed up, I was most definitely not. I ended up turning on an audiobook and cruised along. Around 3pm, I stopped at a road crossing and ate my lunch.. more out of not wanting to carry the weight of it any longer than hunger.

I passed a waterfall and some pretty creeks, then
I eventually made it to Mountain Harbour B&B. I checked in, got a beer and a Mountain Dew, then went to set up my tent along the creek that runs through the property. Once unpacked, I headed back to the main building, got another beer and ordered dinner: Philly cheesesteak sandwich with parmesan fries. Lizard and Finch ended up camping, too. The creek makes for a pretty backdrop to camp next to. While we all ate dinner, along with Roundhouse, a hiker we’ve previously split a shuttle with out of Damascus to slack pack.. the 4 of us decided to slack pack tomorrow, after the huge breakfast they serve here..

I’m looking forward to that breakfast in the morning. It’s apparently AT award worthy, the best breakfast on the trail. I’m ready to test that for myself! I’m worried I won’t fall asleep easy tonight, since I drank that Mountain Dew so late. I’m going to give it my best effort anyway.. so, goodnight, y’all!

Start: Hughes Gap Road (374.1). Stop: Mountain Harbour B&B (AT mi 395.3). Today’s miles: 21.2 miles. Total AT mileage: 1819 miles.

Today was incredible in all ways it could be. Incredibly gorgeous views, incredibly long climbs in the morning, incredibly tired body at the end of it. I loved every moment of it though.

I didn’t sleep well, I’m blaming the Mountain Dew I drank yesterday when I got here.. but I was wide awake for a large portion of the night. Try as I might to sleep, I lay there with my eyes closed and mind going a mile a minute. I even made a “rough” plan for the rest of the hike, which is absolutely unrealistic-but it gives me something to plan better off of. I finally dosed off sometime after 1am, after my 3rd or 4th bathroom break. Sheesh.

7:20am came real fast and I forced myself to get up and pack for the slack pack. I didn’t have to pack up my sleep stuff or tent, since I’d be back here tonight, but I had to make sure I did pack everything I’d need for the day: water, filter, jacket, food and snacks.. earphones and the Garmin Inreach. Before I knew it, it was almost 8am and I walked up the hill to the main house where they serve breakfast.

Now I know what all the fuss is about. Holy macaroni-these people made a SPREAD! Biscuits and gravy, 5 cheese and egg casserole, French toast with several homemade jams to go on top, including one with honey and pecans, tomato pie, some other kind of casserole I can’t remember, bagels with chive cream cheese, a lemon strudel (homemade that morning), yogurt with granola, muffins, potatoes, and more things I can’t recall at the moment.. along with coffee and an entire bar of different creamers, sweeteners, syrups to put in it.. orange and apple juice.

After eating enough to feed a small country, we all reconvened down at the other building to get ready for the shuttle. There were tons of other people here, going for section hikes, day hikes, trail maintenance.. eventually the 4 of us loaded into an SUV and began the journey to Hugh’s Gap. Once out and on our way, we had a 4+ mile uphill climb to the top of Roan Mountain. From there it would be steady ups and downs from one mountain bald to the next with stunning views of the Roan Highlands.

I saw Bones, Zebra, and Smash early in the climb, they were all headed the opposite direction, staying a day ahead of me. Maybe I’ll catch them before Lauren’s bachelorette weekend, but probably not. I even saw Wobby at a campsite half way up Roan Mountain, it was good to see her again, it’s been since Waynesboro! The rest of the way up transformed from regular woods to moss covered ground and some rocky spots. It felt like I was transported back to Vermont at times. I was loving the switchbacks, too. They made what was still a difficult climb more bearable.

I ended up going up and over Roan Mountain, Round Bald, Grassy Ridge Bald, Jane Bald, Little Hump Mountain, and finally, Hump Mountain. The last two lacked switchbacks and were steep, calf crushing climbs. The views from all of these climbs were just breathtaking though. Miles and miles of mountains and vistas off in the distance and right in front of you. The pops of color demanding your eye’s attention. It was almost as majestic as the Grayson Highlands form me.. with both of these locations being in my top 5 for the whole trail. I was mesmerized.

I ate lunch around 3, sitting on a rock on one of the balds. It took this long to get hungry after that huge breakfast! It was quick, knowing the longer I sat the more likely I’d be getting back after sunset. From here, the trail got very muddy on its descent, right up until the climb of the next bald. So muddy that I almost gave up attempting to keep the tops of my shoes from being submerged. Thankfully, they never quite went all the way under the muck. They did come very close though.

All day today the trail wound across the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. I never knew when I was in which state. The trail will continue to zig zag over the border for about 95 more miles, before staying in North Carolina for good. I think it’s pretty neat that the trail is able to ride the border line as long as it does. There was a sign while hiking down Hump Mountain that confirmed I was back in Tennessee for the night.

Once I got to the hostel, sometime just after 6pm, I quickly took my stuff to my tent, reattached my hiking pole to the tent so it would be standing again, and not the dilapidated mess I left this morning, used the bathroom, put my crocs on, and then got 3 beers from the general store at the hostel. I walked back up to the trail crossing and sat on a rock to wait for Lizard and Finch. I knew today was hard on me, I figured it was hard on them, too.. and, honestly, I didn’t want Lizard walking down a busy highway in the dark alone. Two headlamps stand to be seen better by drivers compared to one.. in my opinion anyway.

Finch came up first, after only 5-10 minutes of me sitting there sipping my beer. He sat to rest a minute and sip his. Within only a couple minutes, Lizard came walking up the trail! They were so close for a good bit of the afternoon and didn’t even know it! Lizard happily took her beer, too.

Once they caught their breath, we all three headed back to the hostel. They each did their required “chores” before we all met at the food truck and general store to order dinner. I went with a bacon cheeseburger and fries today. Even better than the philly, if you can believe it. Roundhouse joined us, too. He’s also from Georgia and works at a garden nursery, I think after all of this is done, me and aunt Kathy may go visit him.. she has a green thumb and always keeps her yard beautiful, and mine, too.

We hung out, chatted, and slowly one by one we peeled away to retreat to our tents, hammock, or bunk. I laid in bed only a short while before passing out attempting to write this.. apparently not sleeping well the night before plus a 21 mile day really takes it out of ya! Lol whoops!

Start: Hughes Gap Road (374.1). Stop: Unaka Mountain Top (AT mi 358.1). Today’s miles: 16 miles. Total AT mileage: 1835 miles.

Clearly, I slept like a log last night, seeing how I fell asleep typing out my day. I slept right up to 7:20am, when I got up to start packing. I had everything packed and ready to go before breakfast was served at 8am. It was another incredible breakfast, with the same things from yesterday only with slight variations on the strudel and whatnot. Because of tasting everything yesterday, I was more picky about what I gorged on this morning. It was all indescribably good.. and way too filling.

Afterwards we hung out down by the general store, paid up what we owed for stays and shuttles, and then loaded up into an actual luxury shuttle bus. There were two women going on a section hike in the same direction as us, so 6 of us in total were on the bus-that could have easily seated 20. It was a comfortable ride certainly.

It was a bit nippy when the 4 of us got started. The cool air stayed chilly throughout the day due to cloud coverage. It was mostly solid grey skies with the threat of rain that thankfully never came. The hike ended up being a series of ups and downs over nameless mountains, excluding the named Little Rock Knob and Unaka Mountain. The other six blips were definitely felt though. My calves were burning by the end of the day!

I ate lunch with Lizard at a campsite around noon. The two women that were let out after us started farther south than we did, and this is the spot we met back up with them, as they had stopped to eat their lunch, too. It was nice to chit chat with them.. they’ve been friends since they were 4 years old! They’ve got my Sarah and Lauren beat-the three of us met in 6th grade.. lol

After lunch, Lizard and I hiked mostly together the rest of the afternoon.. chatting about life and whatever random topic decided to pop into our heads. I ended up getting ahead of her when she stopped for a break, meeting back up at the next shelter. It was here that I was at a crossroads. I wanted to stop for the day, my feet were tired. But, that would make a miserable 23+ mile day for me tomorrow. However, to hike to the next campsite would be a water carry up 3 miles of mountain.

Lizard had planned to stay at the shelter. I was attempting to convince myself to stay and just suck it up tomorrow, but the shelter itself wasn’t appealing and we didn’t have service there-so when Lizard said she’d hike on, I was thrilled! Just the motivation I needed to get my butt up that mountain with extra water! I offered to carry one of her liters, since it would even out my pack for me, and I’ve got like 60 pounds on her-so an extra 2 pounds wouldn’t totally kick my ass much more than the other 6 pounds of water I had to tote for myself. It would, however, be noticeably heavier for her. She reluctantly agreed.

We got moving and it was slow going. The switchbacks all but disappeared, although the trail itself is mostly smooth.. it’s just steep in places. Around the half way mark, Lizard paused to wait for me to catch her and then took her liter back! Lol-guilt kicked in, but I honestly didn’t mind toting it.. and she realized soon after, I was still going to be climbing this mountain slowly.. giving up the liter didn’t help improve my pace.

Less than half a mile from the top, I caught up to her sitting on a log at a campsite. I thought this was the top though, and when I felt how windy and cold it was I agreed we should push on. However, when she mentioned we weren’t quite to the top yet anyway, we decided that if the top happened to be winder than here, we’d push just a bit farther going down the other side to another campsite-that at the very least would be as windy as our current location.

The trail seemed to get mossy and magical sometime around here. The trees loomed up overhead, but the forest floor was all pine needles and moss.. soft as clouds. The actual mountaintop was less windy, albeit still very chilly, and so very beautiful, in a spooky, foggy, Halloween is coming kind of way. Roundhouse was already there and set up. He rigged an interesting way to hang his food bag, by an intricate pulley system between 4 trees. Pretty genus. Knowing I probably wouldn’t be able to do that myself, I asked if he’d be willing to hang our food with his.. praying he’d say yes, happy when he did just that.

Lizard and I set up our tents and the three of us ate our dinner around a fire pit. Finch appeared when Roundhouse and Lizard were gathering wood to build a fire. He set up his tent and then joined us for his dinner and the fire starting-followed by fire enjoying. Before we knew it, it was black outside. We could see each other with the help of the fire, but not much else-statues of trees all around, tall overhead, with fog creeping in around them.

We retreated to our tents/hammock close to 8pm. I still had to set up my stuff and filter water for tomorrow. My tent is damp from condensation from last night, which is beyond frustrating-since I swear on everything-David’s tent never did. I never once had drops of condensation inside his tent-never once got wet. Day 2 with my exact same brand and style tent: wet. Honestly it might make me crazy.. but I’m dealing with it. I’m leaving a vestibule on each side open tonight to let the wind help keep the condensation down.

Alright, its 9:30pm, so dark I can’t see a hint of anyone or anything.. and it’s time to tuck these hands inside my sleeping bag and get warm. Goodnight, y’all.