Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 81 – Having a great summer
15th october 2023
Harrison Ground Spring (1422.6) - Bobblets Gap Shelter (1449.5)
Daily miles: 27.1
Total miles: 1458
There were the noise of some really cool - what I assumed to be - owls last night. They sounded a bit like monkeys.
It was such a nice temperature, I was back to sleeping with my bag as a quilt and despite being on a little bit of a tilt down to the right I slept well. So well I didn’t want to get up. Someone else snoozed their alarm 2 or 3 times. Eventually I had to get up because I had to pee so bad. Normally I would wait until I’ve packed up and it would be the last thing I do, but not today.
It was Cal’s birthday today. The grand old age of 26. He said we should be doing 26 miles today and I said I’m glad that’s not a thing you have to do on your birthday. Back in my tent I got cosy in my bag again and ate my leftover calzone for breakfast.
There comes a point where there is nothing left to do but pack away your sleeping bag and hike. We had a fairly big 27 mile day planned and I had wanted to get going sooner than 7:20am, but that didn’t happen. The temperature seemed to be dropping rapidly so while I thought I would be too warm hiking out in my fleece I was happy to have it on. The cloud rolled in and it got really misty. I stopped to switch my fleece for my rain jacket because I didn’t want my warm layer to get wet. I also put on my rain skirt because the wind was chilling my legs significantly. I came to a viewpoint where there was just a view of white, which I’ve had a lot on this trail!
Sunrise through the trees
Staying warm!
Views of white
Taking a moment to enjoy the view
Misty road
I stopped at the shelter which was a little bit off trail but it was worth it to use the privy because it was such a nice privy. I almost didn’t make it. Probably the closet I’ve come to pooping my pants so far.
A very lovely pit toilet
I passed under the The Guillotine - a balanced rock – then hiked up to an exposed area of trail where it was absolutely freezing. The thermometer said 5°C / 41°F but the wind was making it feel a lot colder. As I went down the other side of the ridge it was more sheltered from the wind and the temperatures slowly crept up to 9°C / 48°F and it felt a lot warmer.
Summer is over
The Guillotine
Rocks are cool
I saw a couple on the side of the trail and they asked me if I had seen 3 women. Well…
I asked who she was looking for and when she said she was Kodi’s (May Queen’s “government name”) friend I told them they were ahead and they said they would run to catch them and they shot off like rockets while I slogged my way up the climbs. Last night I was powering my way up the climbs but not so much this morning. After my corn came off last night I decided to put the insoles back into my shoes and it did give them a bit of extra cushion. Some of the trail was a bit tricky this morning because it was rocky but the rocks were hidden by the leaves.
I got too hot so took my jacket off but then soon got too cold again and put my fleece back on.
More lovely views
The trail
I caught up to May Queen, who was with Toe, and her friends had caught up to her. I was also surprised to see Lemonhope there too. He stayed at the shelter where we had originally planned to stay last night and he said it was raining and howling wind and really cold. Just 3 miles down the trail where we were was warm and dry! So he said he had a slow morning. I’m so pleased we didn’t push on to the shelter!
May Queen’s friends brought snacks with them and handed them around and we sat and ate some lunch. We stayed probably longer than we should have but we were still in a better position than we were this time yesterday.
Trail magic from May Queen’s friends
I hiked with people for a couple of miles before they left me behind on the uphill. I was struggling a little with my feet, specifically my right one where the corn was / still is. It falling off hasn’t miraculously helped anything, it actually might be more sore now than when there was a hard lump of skin there. I feel now there is a lot less skin covering the bone in my foot. I caught up to them on the downhill because I was almost running, but then I had to stop and take the insole out of my right shoe because it was hurting too much. My legs were feeling like lead and the next uphill was challenging but just putting one foot in front of the other would get me there.
Hiker train
The afternoon warmed up and lot and I was hiking for a few hours with just my base layers on. The trail flattened out and it was a really nice ridge walk. Even got a few views along the way. I got a bit of a second wind and picked up the pace a bit.
The fog lifted
A nice afternoon
Ooh, it got better as the day went on
As the sun started to set the temperature was dropping and it was time for the fleece and hat to make another appearance. I had about 2 miles left to the shelter and I was readying myself for about a mile of night hiking. I came to a road crossing and first of all I saw a trash can so threw away all the sweet wrappers from my fanny pack (May Queen’s friends carried out all our trash earlier) and then I saw everyone around a car and it was a NOBO we met somewhere on trail called HAGS who had come to give us trail magic (as arranged with May Queen) and as it was Cal’s birthday he brought cake! But Cal was the only one not at the road crossing yet!
Last light
Sunset
A little road walk on the Blue Ridge Parkway
We had a bit more trail to do so instead of hiking the trail we walked another half mile down the blue ridge parkway which is a road which parallels the trail so closely through this section. HAGS took our packs in his car so we could slack pack the half mile and he gave us cold drinks. Beers for everyone else and a flavoured sparkling water for me which I would normally have downed (having drunk very little today) but it was just too cold. The wind was whipping through and the can was too cold to hold!
Luckily Cal popped out onto the road just in time to see us disappearing round the bend of the road and caught us up. HAGS pulled into the next lay-by and set up some chairs and gave us all a bag of mango from Trader Joes which is all we’ve been talking about for weeks – and we got it twice today! – and other nice snacks.
We sang happy birthday to Cal and ate our cupcakes. Unfortunately it was freezing where we were so we got out all our layers and our sleeping bags to try and keep warm. I’m ok when I’m in my bag but I didn’t want to get out of it. Some of us made dinner, I wouldn’t have bothered but I wanted something hot so had some noodles and then a hot apple cider to wash it down with / get some fluid into me.
We stayed for a while chatting but around 8:30pm we said we needed to get going and get some sleep. I feel absolutely exhausted today. My legs are sore and the need to lie down was strong.
Thank you for the trail magic HAGS!
It was 0.8 miles to the shelter and we could walk the road to get there, then a 0.2 mile – what I thought was uphill – trail to the shelter. Toe, May Queen and Cal didn’t want to walk any further so they said they were going to cowboy camp right next to the trail. Luckily for me Lemonhope doesn’t like to cowboy camp either so we walked the road together to get to the shelter. It went fast and it was very easy to see cars coming (there were only 2) because you could see the lights far in advance.
We had to bushwhack a little to get down to the trail from the road but it was easy, although I’m glad Lemonhope was there because I wouldn’t have fancied doing it on my own. Then the trail to the shelter was a series of switchbacks which to my delight were downhill! Before we left HAGS I had put my long legs on so I was wearing nearly all the clothes I own and I was warm when I got to the shelter, because of the walk but also because it’s way more sheltered here and therefore warmer.
The shelter was empty just as we hoped and Lemonhope gave it a sweep before telling me to come and look at something and it was a MASSIVE spider. He killed it by whacking it with the broom and then he swept all the corners of the shelter for cobwebs. Brilliant.
Spider killer
It was nice to have more room in a shelter to spread out and I had all my stuff set up and I was lying down by 9:10pm which isn’t bad. I’ve taken my nightly painkiller although my legs are throbbing over it and another Benadryl to try and stop the itching of the bites on my legs.
When I went to pee I did notice that a plant left loads of burrs on my leggings and some spikey plant things from that little bushwhack, so I had to pick all of them off me.
Its now 10:10pm. I’m very tired.
I asked my friend Aileen to post my waterproof trousers today, as it get colder I may need them to protect my legs from the wind. I’ll pick them up in about a week.
