Day: 022
Date: Tuesday, 16 May 2023
Start: Approaching Devil Fork Gap (AT Mile 310.6)
Finish: Approaching Whistling Gap (AT Mile 329.6)
Daily Kilometres: 34.0
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 558.5
Weather: Overcast in the morning, partly sunny in the afternoon and raining in the evening. Humid and breezy all day.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Rehydrated meals
Aches: Dave - exhausted; Julie has some foot problems (she wouldn’t let me photograph them) from wearing damp socks in damp boots for several days. She has switched to her dry socks and camp running shoes.
Highlight: The summit of Big Bald (5,504’) was awesome if extremely windy and we were lucky enough to have weak sunshine and views in all directions. Having ascended through non-stop forest with no view of what was on top of the mountain we emerged from the woods onto a grassy summit, a bit like an English moor, and the views were revealed.
Lowlight: The climb up Big Bald, especially the last mile and especially towards the end of a strenuous day, was tough, technical, tiring and sweaty.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 5:30am, fortunate that the showers that had continued during the night seemed to have just finished though, of course, the tent fly was wet and had to be dried at one of our later breaks.
It was another day of big climbs, first up Divide Mountain and later up to Big Bald (see above) with descents in between. While we almost entirely in forest, there were some scenic breaks today when we crossed some of the grassy balds and also when we dropped down to Sam’s Gap. Mind you, apart from when climbing steeply, the forests are beautiful with fresh spring growth and many wildflowers. We even saw our first bright orange salamander today. Once we get high onto a mountain there are frequently long broad ridges with easy grades on the trail that makes you feel like you have the world to yourself.
Today, we only saw a couple of thru-hikers, who we caught from behind (one had started ten weeks before us and the other six, meaning they are going to need to speed up if they want to finish the trail this year), and were surprised that none of the 20+ thru-hikers at the shelter we passed two miles before camping last night caught up to us. We (Dave) may be slow, but we walk long hours!
We had aimed to do 20 miles today but, after a brief rainshower, with more threatening and thunder rolling in the distance, we decided around 6:30pm and 19 miles that we better find water and a campsite as soon as possible. This proved to be a wise decision as another brief shower arrived as we found somewhere to camp, then abated long enough for us to quickly set up, chuck everything in the tent and cook dinner before steady rain accompanied by occasional lightning and thunder set in.
Looking forward to a shorter (14 mile) day tomorrow to Erwin and then a day off on Thursday.
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