Day 33 Out Of North Carolina

Writing from The Station, a hostel just off trail where we stopped for lunch and to grab our resupply to get us to Damascus VA.


Last night was very windy and chilly. The base temperature probably didn’t get below 30 degrees but there was a constant 15-20 mile an hour wind all night. I had one of my tent stakes in pretty soft ground and the wind pulled it out twice over the course of the night. Waking up with your tent on top of you is not a fun way to wake up. After the second time I found a big rock and put it on top of the problem tent stake. This fixed the problem for the rest of the night. 


Since we only had 7 miles to make it down to the hostel for our resupply, we took our tents down and skipped breakfast to start hiking around 8:30. We had to get moving since the wind was strong and cold.


We spent the first hour of the day going up and over Hump Mountain and finishing off the Roan Highlands. It was beautiful but there were wind gusts as high as 70mph. Wind that strong with 30 degree base temperatures makes for some uncomfortable hiking. 



On the way up Hump we passed a very nice trail runner named Lava Monster. He was moving quickly but stopped to talk to us. We thought he might pass us again as we got down to US19E, where there is a half mile road walk to the hostel that had our resupply. 


After descending from Hump we got back below treelike and finally got out of the wind. The next 4 miles were flat and downhill before we crossed out of North Carolina for the last time.




Being officially done with our second state is a good feeling. After crossing out of North Carolina we made it to US19E very quickly. In total we hiked the 7 miles from our campsite to the hostel in 2 and a quarter hours. From where the AT crossed US19E there is a half mile off trail road walk to get to The Station. Luckily, the trail runner from the morning passed us about a quarter mile from the road crossing. We made it to the road crossing just after the trail runner did. Without us even asking he offered to drive us to the hostel. After dropping us off he insisted on giving us 20$. Some people we have met on trail have been shockingly generous for no reason. We really appreciated the ride and expected to give the guy 10$ as a thank you. He really went above and beyond. 


After getting dropped off at The Station we have eaten a ton of food and picked up our resupply. The restaurant at this hostel is very good and we all had Rueben sandwiches, mac and cheese, and chicken tenders. 


We plan to hike another 9 miles and see if Mountaineer Falls Shelter is occupied. If not we will be able to stay out of the wind in the shelter and avoid getting wet when the rain starts at 8AM. If the shelter is full we will probably push another mile to a tent site called Slide Hallow. There is supposed to be 40 mile an hour gusts tonight so the shelter will be our best option. 




Writing later that day from Mountaineer Falls Shelter.


After eating a ton of food and packing our backpacks to the brim with our resupply the hike out of The Station was slow despite the easiness of the trail. We still covered the 9 miles to the shelter between 3:30 and 6:30PM. 


After about 5 miles of hiking we crossed the 400 mile mark.



We also passed Mountineer falls and the Elk River. Both landmarks are beautiful and I’m particularly fond of the Elk River because Tyler and I have fished here before when we were in the area in 2019. When we were planning the fishing trip we didn’t even know how close it was to the AT. 



We made it to the shelter and found only two other thru hikers, named Trail Madonna and Pyro. We talked to them for a while and set up our beds. This shelter is very sheltered from the wind so I’m glad to be staying here tonight.


We hiked about 16 miles on the day and spent a good amount of time relaxing and eating at The Station which was a welcome change of pace. 


Tomorrow we will hike around 20 miles in the rain. If we get soaked we will go 24 miles and stay at a hostel called Boots Off for the night to dry off. It’s supposed to rain a good bit and be very windy so we will probably get soaked. Oh well, this is a good section to get rain because we will be at low elevation and not have a ton of views. 


I’m headed to bed.


Goodnight,

Walker 



If you want to follow Tyler or Spencer, here are their logs as well:


Tyler: https://tylerat2024.blogspot.com/?m=1


Spencer: https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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