Day 71 - Friday, May 21, 2021

We ended up staying  another night  at the Mountain Inn & Suites... even Turtle Power is a great supporter of  the “Platinum” Slack Packing Package. I was shocked when he suggested that we stay another night in the hotel rather than go camping 🥱. Who am I to never not take advantage of 4 walls and a roof over my head, an actual real and comfortable bed, indoor plumbing and a hot shower; not to mention WiFi, TV and breakfast? My Momma did not raise no fool 😉.  I think we are going to camp at a hostel tonight.

Spring is definitely here. Daytime temps are now forecasted to be in the 70’s & 80’s with nighttime temps not dropping below the 50’s. No rain is in sight for the next several days - but that could always change. 🙃

Today we continued hiking from Sam’s Gap, US 23, I-26 (319.7 NoBo) to Devils Fork Gap, NC 212 (311.0 NoBo) for a total of 8.7 miles.

We began hiking at 10 am and started off with a 3 mile long climb of nearly +1400 feet change in elevation… a real heart stomper. 







We weren’t 500 ft up the trail when we came upon this memorial... R.I.P “Red Beard”.







There is a small family cemetery plot of local settlers right next to the AT... last name was Hensley. Dorothy Hensley lived to 104 which is rare in any time period. 




Local cascade. Turtle Power was checking it out as a possible place to take his weekly shower, then he remembered it was only Friday 😂.


Still climbing...


Just give me a minute... but I’ll have about 10 minutes waiting for Turtle Power to catch up 🐢.









Amazing views from on top of Big Bald. 



Mountain side steps carved into the trail. 



We came upon a group of “Lady Slippers”.



Sam Gap monument.


I wasn’t paying attention as the trail was slanted and walked me right into a tree... my story is that there is one less bear on the AT to worry about! 😂  It looks worse than it is, just a little “bark” rash. I think “Sunny” referred to it as a “face plant” 🙄.

We finished hiking at 3:15 pm. The skies were clear and the temperature was 86°. Today was the hottest day of hiking to date but it’s really not that bad as the canopy is so dense that you’re in the shade a fair amount of the time. It’s going to be hot again tomorrow and we hiking +20 miles. 

And TP opted to go back to the hotel again tonight. I think someone is trying to earn enough hotel points so he can use them when he hikes the Continental Divide.... alone 😉😂.

We are starting to rack up the trail miles as we broke the 800 trail mile plateau today with 802.7 miles 🎉 . We still have a long way to go to the coveted 2193 total trail miles of the AT.


Till next time.... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋


“You gotta have passion for life and passion for something that you're going to get up and do,".    

                                Meredith “Sunny” Eberhart  

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 22, 2021 at 5:30 AM

    36.6% complete. That's quite an accomplishment. You got this!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ebb and FloMay 22, 2021 at 7:37 AM

    Congrats on 800 miles!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ErinMay 23, 2021 at 2:50 PM

    That awesome on your 800 miles keep the work going

    ReplyDelete

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