Day 6 North Carolina

Writing while mostly dry inside my tent, listening to the rain fall in the rhododendrons around me.


I didn’t sleep a ton last night but I honestly wasn’t that tired and the lack of sleep didn’t bother me at all today. I probably got 5-6 hours of sleep, not terrible. The pull out couch was plenty comfortable, and I felt very relaxed and well rested this morning. We took our time getting out of the hotel and made sure we had all of our stuff together. We took a 10:30 shuttle back to Dicks Creek Gap, where we had gotten off trail to go into Hiawasee. By 11 we were hiking in the rain and fog. 



Not a ton to show for views today, the weather kept visibility short. We managed to cover 13 miles between 11 and 5:15. The miles were certainly not simple. We ascended 4485 feet and descended 2575 feet. I’m not sure if it was the rest in town or that my body is adapting to hiking all day, but the miles weren’t too bad today. Don’t get me wrong, I was very tired and ready to get to camp for the last hour of the day, but I wasn’t hurting like I have been at the end of other days. The only thing I’m watching out for is some tightness on the outside of my ankles. Other than that I’ve been feeling very good. 


Our major accomplishment for the day was exiting Georgia and entering North Carolina. We officially checked off our first state. Just 13 more to go. 




Tomorrow we will get very close to crossing the 100 mile mark. Since we hiked the approach trail we will technically have hiked over 100 miles by mid day tomorrow, but most people only really count miles from Springer Mountain. Anyway, it’s very exciting to be in North Carolina.


North Carolina is certainly a step up in difficulty. It’s sort of like Georgia’s big brother. While Georgia has multiple mountains over 4,000 feet of elevation, NC has mountains over 6,000 feet, and is a lot more rugged. The added difficulty of NC should benefit us in the long run by preparing our bodies for more difficult terrain and longer miles. We definitely can’t take our feet off the gas. After crossing into NC we passed this tree, which is sort of a land mark on the AT.



We actually saw some rain today. It wasn’t very heavy, mostly just passing showers. I was warm enough while hiking to not even wear my rain gear. Rain gear is not my favorite anyway, it makes me sweat so I end up being just about as wet as I would have been without it. For me, rain gear is more of a wet weather insulation layer. If I’m cold and it’s raining I’ll wear my poncho. If it’s warm out I don’t really mind being wet while in my hiking clothes. Then when I get in my tent I’ll put on my dry sleeping clothes. Now, so I don’t eat my words later, if it’s a torrential downpour I’d rather sweat in my poncho than be absolutely soaked to the bone. 


Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same, light rain and fog all day. Tomorrow night is supposed to be very windy and cold. 26 degrees base temperature and 25-30mph winds. We are planning on seeing how we feel and going anywhere from 15.5 miles to 21.5 miles. If we’re not feeling good then we won’t push it. 


I’ll upload pictures when we have better service


Goodnight 


Walker 

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