Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Day 30, Monday March 29, 2021





Nehemiah 1 - 13

Hogback Ridge campsite to Bald Mountain shelter campsite- 10 miles - 327.4 total AT miles hiked.

In case I hadn’t mentioned it before, hiking (especially long trail hiking like the AT) is hard.  It’s also simultaneously wondrous, challenging, uplifting, dispiriting, amazing, tedious, and beautiful.  Every morning is like getting up to go to work at a job you love (or so I’ve been told). You begin each day with anticipation of the challenges, wonders, and excitement that each new dawn promises, and then deal with the circumstances and obstacles as required.  At the end of the day, you experience a feeling of accomplishment from knowing you did your best and met the daily goal you set out for yourself.

That said, today broke sunny and cold.  It froze overnight with temperatures in the high 20’s. Everything was frozen including my shoes which were solid blocks of ice.  It took longer than usual to pack out as we had to wait for the sun to thaw everything.

Leaving camp around 9:30, we decided to make it a short day and hike 10 miles to the next shelter.  It was clear and cool, warming up as the morning progressed. 2 miles down the trail, I came across an inspiring sight. A plaque had been erected by the Moye family who had given this section of land to the forest service (see picture). On it each family member had inscribed a scripture reference.  They ascribed “this part of the Appalachian Trail as a manifestation of the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord”.  My feeling exactly.

From there, as I crossed a road at Sam’s Gap I was greeted by trail magic.  A former thru hiker/Marine was cooking scrambled eggs and hash browns with ginger cookies and sodas.  A great way to start the day.  Hiking was good in the morning as the trail mud was frozen and crusty and easy to walk on.

After crossing under I-26, the afternoon was not as easy hiking as the sun had melted the frozen trail and we were back to hiking through mud.  We also had two large mountains to crest, and including Big Bald mountain, a 5500 ft behemoth that took us to an incredible overview of the surrounding area.

From there it was an easy hike to the shelter which I arrived at by 4:30.  Setup, dinner, and then a couple of hours listening to the rambling talk of the crew spending the night in the shelter.  Finally things got quiet well after hiker midnight (currently about 9 pm).

Until next time...








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