Rock Gap Shelter (4/10/10)

The past few days, I've really been paranoid about snakes. I talked to at least three complete strangers while I was in Hiawassee who all warned me about snakes. Copperheads (from pictures I've seen and stories I've heard) blend in with the forest pretty well, so I'm nervous that I'm not looking for them hard enough. I was told that they like to hang out near fallen trees (which cross the trail every now and then), so I take extra care when crossing fallen trees. I've started clanking my poles together whenever entering a suspicious area - in the hopes that they'll hear the ruckus I'm making and either leave before I get there or give me some sort of rattle-like sound to let me know that they're there. So far, I haven't seen anything - although, one of the other guys came really close to stepping on one after accidentally flipping over a rock while hiking.

Saturday morning, I awoke to find that almost everyone that packed up and left. For the past week or so, some hiking club for South Carolina had been posting notes about some Trail Magic that they were going to dish out Sat. morning at Mooney Gap (~4 mi from Carter Gap) - so everyone wanted to get there ASAP that morning.

In case I haven't mentioned this before (and I don't think I have), Trail Magic is a term used to describe any kind of situation where non-hikers help out hikers by providing transportation or food or anything that hikers need to stay happy and healthy. Providers of Trail Magic are usually associated with the trail community or they're former thru-hikers or they're just awesome people in general - a lot of times, all three.

Anyway, I packed up as fast as I could and sprinted down the trail - thinking that everyone had finished up all of the grub. I got there to find out that there was plenty more to go around. There was a lady serving up pancakes, they had "country ham" (how have I never had this before?!) and they had sodas, coffee, fruit, candy bars and a bunch of other stuff. They were really nice people and they had a good fire going. Everyone else from the shelter was still there, and we all had a tough time prying ourselves away from the fire and back on to the trail - but, after a couple hrs, we were on our way.

From AT 2010

While we were lounging around the fire, a day hiker came up to the group and announced that he was was with WSB (an AM radio station in Atlanta) and that he was doing a story on thru-hikers and that it would air on some Sunday (NPR-style in his words) show. He quickly interviewed a few of the thru-hikers, asking them why they were hiking - that sort of thing.

Next up for the day was Albert Mtn, another monster of a Mtn. The amt of elevation wasn't that bad; it was the steepness of the climb. After not too long, we got to the top of the mtn and were rewarded with a fire tower. The fire tower had obviously seen better days but we went up anyway.

From AT 2010

The views from the top were amazing. There was a guy there who obviously knew the area better than we did and was able to point out various landmarks along the horizon. He pointed to an area North-West of where we were and said that those were the Great Smokies.

From AT 2010

After coming down from Albert Mtn, I was booking it hardcore. The terrain was super level (fewer roots/rocks compared to previous portions of the trail) and the weather was just right. Since we had spent so much of the day not hiking, I was a little anxious to get to the next shelter before it got too late.

I got to Rock Gap shelter maybe around 5 or so - a while before the rest of the group. I set up my hammock, dried out some stuff and got dinner going. I met a few new guys at the shelter: Long Shanks - a former professional backpacking guide from Montana who was taking the summer off to hike the At before moving to San Francisco in the Fall for grad school. Another guy (Ultra White - b/c he's a really white guy I guess...?) was a rafting guide on the Ocoee river. The last two guys to get to the shelter that night were Jersey Dave and another guy, Chainsaw. Chainsaw is a character, and gets his trailname from the fact that he snores really, really loud - so loud, in fact, that he travels with a few sets of ear plugs, which he lends to those unfortunate people who have to sleep near him. Everyone was really cool that night, and we all sat around for an hr or so sharing hiker gossip and hilarious fart stories (don't ask).