Day 5 - Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter

Sunday April 23, 2017

I woke up around 6:15 to find almost everyone already packing up! It was kind of a hectic atmosphere with everyone getting ready, mostly because of the weather. It's supposed to rain pretty bad all day long with thunderstorms and stuff. The rain was only a drizzle in the morning though, so all of us wanted to get out there and hike as far as we could before it got worse. We were pretty much all shooting for the Low Gap Shelter about 11.5 miles away. Jacob, Bettie, Bernie (Toronto), Boston Rob, and Mr. Smokes all left before us. We managed to get on the trail at 7:40 though! Not too bad.

The only "covered" portion of the Appalachian Trail

We started out with our packs covered with the ponchos, making us look like little turtles. Just call us little Leonarda's. Bad joke. We took off at a fairly brisk pace with our packs set so all our snacks were accessible and only things we needed access to on the trail in the top pouch of the backpack. Minimizing the chance fore any water seepage into the main compartment. As we were walking we'd come up on tents with people still hunkered down in them. I don't blame them. Is there anything worse than trying to pack everything up in the rain?

Maybe 45 minutes into the hike the rain picked up enough for us to put the ponchos over us as well. We looked like two bright blue hunchbacks. Lauren, with her hiking poles, reminded me of the weird swampy people on stilts in the movie Mad Max Fury Road haha! Having ponchos was a great idea though. They kept us dry, but had enough ventilation that we didn't get too sweaty underneath. Perfect. Not too much later we passed Jason and his Weed Bro's still breaking up camp. We then passed Mr. Smokes and Badass Betty before having to take break. I got really cold when we stopped hiking, so we didn't stand around for long. Did I mention the first two miles were all uphill? Killer. Lots of hills today.

so cute

A bit further down the path Jason caught us. He was booking it out early; sick of waiting for his friends and the rain. All he wanted to do was "get back to his truck ASAP to throw a few beers back." Omg. We came on some killer views, or what would have been killer views had it not been a complete whiteout haha. I took a picture anyway.

probably a nice view somewhere in the fog

I think I was a few minutes ahead of Lauren at this point when Paul caught up with me. I scurried down the mountain with him chatting about cool places to visit and see in the west. (He's the ski instructor at Alta but grew up in Vermont) Going down we passed Boston Rob who had started the hike in his Crocks! His thought process was, "keep my boots dry for as long as possible." but as we passed him he was changing into them haha. I guess he'd had a few slips and close calls. I don't know how wearing crocks on a rainy day seemed like a good idea...

Lauren caught up with us by the bottom we reached the bottom of that hill and was so SO pissed. I had to help her with another pee break, but it was cold with another uphill section next, plus I didn't want to be around her bad attitude, so I didn't wait for her on the hill and ended up hiking alone again eventually passing Bernie (Toronto).

This hill was probably the hardest of the day with REALLY steep switchbacks. At the top I saw Paul taking a break and joined him. Lauren arrived a few minutes later still so pissed and completely out of breath. (still drizzly rain at this point) She was struggling pretty bad but luckily we had a nice downhill portion after that and we hiked together more or less. We must have been making pretty good time because we caught up with Paul and hiked a while with him.

At the bottom of this hill we saw Jason parked in his truck. He had walked the last mile of the way on the road to beat us there. He offered us beer and water. Lauren and Paul totally pounded a beer in under a minute. I grabbed a water bottle; the last thing we wanted to do was have to stop and filter water in the rain. The beer was probably the best thing for Lauren though. At the entrance to the next section of the day Paul tweaked his knee so I gave him some Ibuprofen and we left him in the dust.

Lauren was leading and totally ROCKING the pace. I could barely keep up! She kept saying, "The trees are swaying" and that she felt like she was "on a conveyer belt." hahahaha. We were actually running down the mountain for a good portion of the downhill and level trail. Her mood had drastically improved too. Still pissed, but not pissy.

The rest of the hike kind of stayed that way. I think we got to the shelter around 12:30. (SO FAST!) As we walked the path down to the shelter were saw a TON of tents, so we were worried about available space. Jacob was the only one who "beat" us there, and he said he arrived maybe 5 minutes before we did. 2 others who had stayed at the shelter the night before were also inside. So we quickly claimed a spot.

It was an ordeal getting dry, changed, and some warm food in us. The girl who was already in the shelter kindly offered us a towel to dry up and wipe the mud off. So, SO nice. Lauren and I made a make-shift changing room by holding up our ponchos in one corner for each other so we could strip and get into dry clothes. The shelter itself was, unfortunately, a small one and oddly didn't have many hooks. Annoying because we all had wet clothes and gear we wanted to hang up. Maybe 5 minutes later Paul arrived.

After lunch Boston Rob arrived next. He and his Boston self got the low-lifes who had been there all day (making jewelry!!) to vacate the shelter haha! Go Rob. From there we all started getting things organized, laying out our sleep spots, and trying to get warm. (still constant rain/drizzle!) Bobby and Toronto arrived a bit later and we were able to squeeze them into the shelter as well. That made 7 people and it was pretty much maxed out.

A few more people came down that we didn't know, but we turned them away. No room. THEN Badass Betty rolled into camp. We had to make room for Betty. Boston Rob - The Man - gave up his spot in the shelter for her and left to continue on down the trail. What a guy. He and a few other guys got wind of some sort of retreat place that sounded great, was only 5.7 miles away, with beds and such. It had pretty sketchy directions though. Something like, turn right at a decrepit sign and follow the creek...

Left to right: Paul, me, Lauren, Boston Rob, Bernie (Toronto), and Bobby

Since then we've just been hanging out and chatting. We filtered water and strung up a line to hang wet clothes from. Lauren and I decided to just go ahead and finish up the hike tomorrow. It's supposed to rain all day again and is only 9+ miles to Unicoi Gap. Luckily (and surprisingly) I have service and was able to call our shuttle guy and bump up our pick up date. Yay!

Not a bad view; the picture doesn't do it justice. It got really beautiful as the sun dipped lower and the mist started seeping through the trees.

Jacob busted out the tequila again and a few people partook. It's only 5:20 and we're cold and wondering what to do for the rest of the night. There's lots of talk about trail plans. Days like this make me happy I'm not going the whole way. I'm still wanting to get John to do more of it with me though.

This is the first night Lauren will be sleeping outside (without a tent) and she's pretty nervous. Jacob has a bug net he's letting her use, and I think being so close to other people will help. I feel like each night has been a graduation of sorts for her. Pushing it to the next level, doing things she's never done before.

ready for bed

Funny Story: One of Lauren's co-workers gave her this (picture below) freeze dried meal to take with her on our trip. Very thoughtful. Lauren said it was huge, like 4 serving's worth, so she obviously didn't want to pack it along. Anyways, she didn't say anything about that to the co-worker, not wanting to hurt her feelings. It turns out Paul had the exact same meal (smaller size) to eat for dinner at the shelter that night. Lauren was freaking out saying, "oh this is perfect, so perfect!" Paul let her take a picture with his food so she could show her friend that she ate it. She also made him tell her what it tasted like so she could give some "good feedback" haha. Too funny.

• Lauren fell off her camp chair again.
• Bobby is collecting hiking tips. He also lit one up behind the shelter, I thought it was a skunk at first haha.
• We'll probably zip our sleeping bags together tonight to share warmth.

Quotes of the day:

• Kristin - "What are the highlights of the day?
  • Lauren - "Today? None."
• Lauren - "Listen, I pee with a whistle in my mouth."