Day 79 - Saturday, May 29, 2021

 Happy Memorial Day Weekend America 🇺🇸 .

Spent the night drying out everything that was soaked from yesterday’s hike. This would be a challenge camping on the trail. Have I mentioned that I just love our “Platinum Slack Packing Thru-Hike”? The rest of the weekend looks dry but a little cool - only in the 60’s which is great hiking weather 😉. I’ve also noticed that our water consumption increases dramatically when the temperatures get above 75°, nearly 3X 🥵.

Today we are continuing hiking SoBo from Stecoach Gap, NC 143 (150.5 NoBo) to US 19 & 74, Nantahala Outdoor Center (136.9 NoBo) equaling 13.6 miles.



We started at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Begin hiking at 9:30 under cloudy skies and the temperature was 58°.

This potion of the Nantahala River is noted for rafting and kayaking - note the kayak gates behind us in the river.




This is “Poppa Mo” & “Momma Mo”. The Morelli’s are from the Atlanta area and left Springer May 1st. They are giving themselves 6 months to complete their thru-hike... Happy Trails!



The Mountain Laurel blossoms are dropping.


The trail in today’s section was very restricted and narrow due to the dense undergrowth and grasses making hiking more demanding - a little trail maintenance would be welcomed 🥴.


Monument marking where a NC Forest Ranger loss his life fighting a fire December 7, 1968 (Pearl Harbor Day).


Mountain spring.



We encountered a lot of rock today making hiking slow and difficult... “Rocks & roots, they tear you up” (Meredith “Sunny” Eberhart )



Taking a break; the 1st 8 miles was a long ascent where we climbed over 3200 ft. 









Views from the summit of Cheoah Bald.










We finished hiking at 4:30 pm with cloudy skies; temperatures dropped this afternoon into the low 50’s. The next couple days will be cooler as well 👍🏻.

We hit another milestone today, breaking 900 trail miles, 905.1 miles to be exact 🥳. Closing in on the halfway point. We are starting to pick up our daily average miles too which helps chip away at total trail days. Just 2 more miles a day would  decrease our hikes by nearly 20 over the course of the remaining miles.  Staying optimistic and looking forward to the adventures ahead of us 😉!


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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 107A & B - Sunday/Monday, July 18-19, 2021

Image
Sunday’s “Zero” was a nice break. We took  this time to  do laundry and finish our tentative hiking itinerary that takes us through the Whites, over the President’s and into Maine. New Hampshire and Maine have their own system on the AMC website where you need reservations to stay at Huts and Lean-to’s aka shelters. But of course their on-line reservations is not working, let’s blame that on the pandemic, and they are not open on Sunday’s. We have to call tomorrow to finalize our reservations. Hopefully the Huts & Lean-to’s have vacancies for the dates we need?   Out next hike will take us over three days & two nights continuing from Franconia Notch (1820.0 NoBo) to RR Tracks, parking, Ethan Pond Pond Trail (1847.4) for a total of 27.4 miles. Due to the parking logistics we are hiking this section SoBo. This hike will also complete our approach to Mt. Washington.  We wake up today, Monday, and it’s pouring…. still, again 😵‍💫! So we decide to drive to the Ethan Pond Trail entr
Read more

Day 71 - Friday, May 21, 2021

Image
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 sto
Read more

The Final Chapter

Image
My favorite scene on the Appalachian Trail near Petites Gap/Highcock Knob, VA, March 26, 2021 (Day 31). Reaching Springer Mountain, the Southern Terminus, June 13, 2021 (Day 90). Summiting Mt. Katahdin, the Northern Terminus, August 25, 2021 (Day 131). Completing our thru hike at Harpers Ferry on October 9, 2021 (Day 174). In the Beginning … This adventure actually started about two years ago in the fall of 2019 when Jim asked me about how I’d like to hike the Appalachian Trail with him. I gave it a good 2 seconds of consideration before I wasn’t politically correct at all in my answer telling him NO…LOL. I was just getting over an injury with my right Achilles tendon as I ruptured it a couple years prior and long distance hiking was the farthest thing on my mind to do.  Now lets back up about 57 years when Jim and I first met. His dad owned and operated a local campground, Coldbrook Campsites in Port Leyden, New York. Port Leyden was also the home of my father and he knew Jim’s dad an
Read more