Mar 3
Today heard female outside my tent make happy claim she had finally pooped, to then be congratulated by the female she was speaking with.
Heard, from my tent again, a female telling a male later in the shelter about how she’s looking forward to a nice salad while he responded, not him, he was going to go get a big bowl of the no nutrient iceberg lettuce and just mow down on it for the roughage, just pure roughage at this point.
Everywhere I see these guys who have brought MREs in a plan of on-going seriousness; my first thought is to mention to them that they better keep hydrated as they stop things from coming out… Likely an integral part of their design but that’s just soldier speculations…. Never heard solid confirmation either yay or nay.
And I’ve heard more than one person, someone groups of folks discussing, the past two nights discussing the idea of eating extra at dinner so that there is less weight in their pack in the morning.
We’re at pooping concerns and eating to lighten backpacks stages of social and functional development.
Was heading from Gooch to Woods Hole Shelter areas and as I was coming around t Woody Gap the feel of the air dropped in temp severely… I went from comfortably sweating to freezing. I’d been coming around with the last mile, roughly, with a few folks coming south telling me Trail Magic in the form of food and warmth was going on in the Gap so was looking forward to that. Thankfully came upon it after only about .2 miles of me starting to get concerned about my body temp.
Was old bus-shaped RV that was very neat and insides done in stained wood instead of plastic. Outside were small pavilions where they were serving tea and soup that I couldn’t eat but we could sit in the RV and get a little warm (being sweaty from hiking my clothing was too wet for me to really actually get warm, but it was a hellofa step up.
Word of mouth came in that I was vegan and it turned out the owners made their own vegan patties and had Veganaise and were all urging to make me a burger and it was epic. Nom.
weather turned bad into heavy snow without forecast warning until after it had started, we saw it as we sat in the RV.
I was debating pushing to next shelter still or campsite rumored to be only a mile forward and then as it kept coming down harder decided maybe just back across the road at a picnic table area I’d put up and get into my sleeping bag and warm.
Then my head cleared once the food sank in and I realized I was in Woody Gap where there were a couple of hostels that picked up from their and I could stay over night and get back started the next day.
Got there and ran into bunch of people I’d met here and there on the way along – turned out everyone nearby, especially by urging of local safety personnel – that had settled into the same hostel did.
I walked into the store to pay for my stay and get snacks and heard and then saw a bunch of people at a table raising their arms to wave and yelling, “Rumpus!”.
Spent time with them and met some new folks, and we all were in the same set of connected by day room bunk areas so evening was a great bunch of chatting.
Next morning we were all heading to Neel’s Gap, coming over Blood Mountain (highest point in GA) and the son of the two Israeli males decided he was waiting on top until all of us coming up over had gotten there. Some chose to carry all, some to slack pack, some decided to pass around the mountain instead of it.
Woody Gap Trail Magic
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Vegan burger with everything out of Trail Magic!
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Wolfpen Gap Country Store:
I walked in and was greeted by big “hi”s and my name and waves from a bunch that had been in the same area of trail that I’d met or we’d been at the same shelter and some just being the big amount of friendliness found on the trail. Especially when seeing someone come in safe off this weather, knowing them or not!
They stamped my AT Passport:
Upstairs we all shared a hostel space of 3 bunk rooms and a shared livingroom. Between that and sharing table waiting on laundry cycles and bullshitting we are starting to form a “trail family”.
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Tomorrow is over Blood Mountain.