Day 3 - Hawk Mountain Shelter to Woody Gap

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Friday April 21, 2017

Nothing too exciting this morning; we got up around 6:30 am. Lauren slept better, but still not great. She said she whacked a mouse off the top of the tent at one point during the night. I slept OK. I just have SUCH a hard time getting comfortable. I'm hoping I get tired enough one of these days and sleep right through. We shall see.
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Day 3 and still alive

We got on the trail by 8:30 ish, still before some peeps (which I'm proud of), to embark on our 13+ mile day. The first 5 or so miles were pretty rough, no water source during this portion either. Lots of long, steep ups and downs. My legs were burning while going up and knees were aching while going down. I like to power through the uphill portions without stopping though. Something about momentum maybe? I usually take off and wait for Lauren at the top.
At the final high point (in the first portion of the day) we stopped at a a really nice clearing for a snack. I busted out my camp chair and put my feet up and everything. It was nice. There was a lot of downhill portions after that. I've found that it's easier for me to kind of shuffle-run down the hill. It might just be because it gets me down quicker meaning less time with achy knees. We've also found that Lauren has a slightly faster pace on level ground than I do. It's the hills where I smoke her. We did stop at a cool rock formation to snap some pics cuz.... had to.
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Eventually we came up on the water source and it was a good one. Nice, decent sized creek with sunny banks to sit on. We set up there and were able to eat lunch, filter water, soak our feet, and relax. I think we stayed for around 45 minutes to an hour. We caught sight of Chris, Billy, Tony, and Kristen just as we were heading out, they pounced on our nice spot on the bank. The place was pretty packed by the time we left.
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The last half of the day wasn't too bad all things considered. Some steep hills, but nothing too long. I was feeling it though; just because it was a long day.  Hurting feet, hurting SHOULDERS, and a bit of chafing. Ugh. The worst. The best part of the day has definitely been the views. There was one really good one at the rock formation I mentioned earlier, and two awesome ones in the last three miles or so of the day. It made the last bits of the hike a tad more bearable.
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At Woody Gap (our destination for the day) we found a family handing out "trail magic" - soda and candy. Bless them. Cold Pepsi never tasted so good. We ran into Jacob enjoying the "magic" as well. Woody Gap is at a roadway crossing, so we popped over to the other side of the road to all look for a spot to set up camp together. We found a nice little cove that helps block some of the road noise and wind. Turns out we totally lucked out since our neighbor (also camping in the little cove) is a GA AT volunteer who knows a TON of stuff! He showed us where the Poison Ivy was, helped us hang up our water bags, and showed us the PCT bear bag hang for our food.
We got the boring stuff done: tent set up, water filter, sponge bath, pee (in real campsite toilets yay!) change, etc. While filtering water we ran into the group of guys who took pictures for us at Three Forks Crossing. It was fun chatting with them as we filtered and cleaned up. As we were heading out Jason asked, "This may be a weird question, but do you guys ever smoke weed?" or something like that. We tried to graciously say, "thanks for the offer, but no." as we took off back to our campsite. Haha! Happy 4/20 weekend.
Dinner was Thai Peanut Pasta, Yum! Totes burned my tongue. Now Lauren, Jacob, GA AT guy, weird lady with hygiene questions, PTSD, and non-stop chatter, and I are just chilling around the fire. More bugs are out tonight, but I'm trying to hold off putting on the bug spray.
Trail Thoughts:
  • I could do this thru hiking thing maybe
  • Can I get John to finish the GA portion and part of the NC trail with me before me move?
  • We have totally lucked out on the weather. It's supposed to cool down tonight, with a possible chance of rain. Sunday is the day it'll most likely rain.
  • I'm pissed we got a small hole in the tent. I blame the dumb hair claw Lauren left in it. Think it punctured the hole as I rolled it up. Of course it could also have been from the mice...
  • 13+ miles accomplished today, whoop!
  • 10+ miles tomorrow. Please, oh please, oh please, oh please..
  • The rest of the gang didn't make it this far... we rock.

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