Blazing Trails With Kudzu

It’s 10am and I’m stuck inside the hammock. It hasn’t stopped raining all night. I’m hoping my gear isn’t soaked. Like a moron I put stuff in my pack cover instead of showing it in the pack and covering the whole thing. Guess I wasn’t thinking clearly last night.

I haven’t seen a soul today. I’m not sure if I will either. I’d at least like to male it to the shelter.

I really need to get out to stretch the legs and get breakfast but I’m pretty cozy.

I’ll let you know if the wx changes.
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What a beautiful day this was. The entire day was moderate and the miles ticked away.

I stopped about 3 for lunch, water, and a foot check. Talked to a couple doing a loop hike to Deep Gap. That’s when I felt the first drops. At 3:30 it started to rain. Three $iles later it was still raining.

Caught up with my buddy at Beech Gap. I think I should’ve stayed with him. It was only 3 miles to the shelter and like a fool I went for it. After getting completely soaked to the bone and slipping and falling in the mud I made it to the first spot I felt I could stop.

I’m now in my hammock under the tarp trying to get warm. I’m only 1.5 miles from the shelter. That bites. But I’ll just have to make the best of it amd hope I don’t catch pneumonia. I think more rain is coming tonight so it’s doubtful anything will dry out. That’ll suck big time.

Well. That’s about it for now. Sitting at 22.5 miles total. Time to warm up. Later. Enjoy your warm beds. Showing about 45 here. Good night.

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Well, I made good time today in picking up my hiking buddy. Unfortunately I required a quick trip to REI ;-). I didn’t feel safe using my Hiker Pro since it doesn’t appear that I cleaned it the last time I used it and wasn’t sure what critters were growing on it. I decided to err on the side of safety and get a new, clean filter element. I also had another issue to resolve. I really wanted to make sure I had a way to power the Blackberry in case I need it during the extended trip.

Based on the recommendation of another hiker buddy I picked up the iGo portable charger. This is cool since it’s made by the same company as my car charger. Well, on the trip up I tried charging the BB when it was down to 1 bar. I’m through two sets of batteries and it still isn’t completely charged.

While at REI I decided to drop the coin on the Solio Rocsta solar charger. It’s currently connected to the laptop I’m writing this with so we’ll have a full charge when we hit the trail tomorrow. I figure we can alternate charging our BBs and should be good. We’ll see. I’ll write up a review when we get back.

Haven’s Budget Inn is a bit interesting. It feels as though we’ve stepped back into the 60s. The TV is old and sitting on a roller cart. The bathroom is right out of the 50s or 60s. Oh well, we weren’t expecting the Waldorf.

I guess I’ll keep it short for now. Our shuttle will be here at 7 so I want to get some rest. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some updates from the trail.

It seems like it’s been forever since I left the Trail the last time. There’s been so much going on that I haven’t hardly put anytime on the ground since then. Well, that’s all about to change.

We’re putting the finishing touches on our next section hike. It looks like we’ll be picking up at Dick’s Creek Gap in GA and hiking about 60 miles to Tellico Gap outside Franklin, NC. This will be our longest hike to date since our group hooked up.

One of the guys can’t do the full week so he’ll be meeting us at Winding Stair Gap. That actually works out well for us since it’ll be a re-supply opportunity for us and we won’t have to spend time heading into town or carry a ton of extra stuff.

The plans are moving forward and we’ll be on the trail from May 9-14. I can’t wait to hit the mountains! I’m not looking forward to the 8-9 hour drive but the trip will be worth it!