Sleeping proved challenging.It was very windy and cold, and I went to bed with my t-shirt, thermal undershirt and puffy on on top. This at least kept me warm for a while. The tent set up perfectly, but with the winds it required a little bit of cinching down before bedtime. I woke feeling very cold at about 1:00 in the morning, and use the handy trick of eating a couple of handfuls of walnuts and then trying to go back to sleep. This actually worked. I slowly warmed up and was able to sleep for another couple of hours. I woke again and repeated the process. That’s not to say I was only awake briefly — I was awake for probably half an hour or more each time, feeling cold and trying to decide what to do. But I’m sure I got at least 8 hours sleep.
I woke up early in the morning when I felt the bottom of my mattress lifting up. I took off my mask and saw that the peg at the foot of the tent near my feet must have come out and so that whole area of the tent had collapsed. I later heard from another hiker that the winds overnight had been as high as 55 or 60 miles an hour, so it’s not surprising the tent partially blew over. It was just after 7. Getting dressed was unpleasant owing to the cold, since I had to strip down to bare chest in order to remove my nightshirt and put on my day clothes, but I managed. When I went outside a beautiful sunrise awaited me.
Getting the food pack down was challenging because my fingers were so cold and the string that I use or the rope that I use to tie up the food pack is so thin that it’s very hard to undo the knots when your hands are numb. There was a little picnic table near my tent, with several boards missing, but at least it was a convenient place to put my granola and have my coffee. One hack I learned: heat uour dinner in the pouch it came in (Knorr sides) then rinse or scrape it clean, then eat granola out of it in the morning. It saves having to wash tge pot and the mug.
I thought I did a pretty good job of packing up and eating breakfast quickly but somehow I didn’t leave camp until 8:53 in the morning so it took me almost 2 hours from waking up to when I was ready to leave. I didn’t see any of the other campers on my way out because I didn’t have to go by the shelter but soon enough I ran into a couple of them along the trail. I passed Liz probably 3 or 4 times from about 9:00 a.m. until maybe 3:00 p.m. and I passed Stitch a couple of times or he passed me — we kept looping around each other as each of us stopped for breaks and so on.
It was cold in the morning. I wore my t-shirt, thermal undershirt and shirt until at least noon, and the toque that Slim Jim and One More gave me. There were lots of spectacular views. The trail often follows a narrow ridge so often you have views from both sides.
On one downhill section I ran into Stitch again and he told me to go ahead because he was feeling slow. I think my cross country skiing technique helps with going downhill. When he caught up to me later he said “Now I know why they call you Batman. You fly downhill like a bat.” So I’m feeling a bit more enthusiasm for my temporary trailname. A trailname should tell something about you, have a story to it that reflects you. Flying downhill like a bat is a story. Having the name of the sidekick in a 60s TV show and being given a trailname of the main attraction isn’t much of a story.
I saw lots of new plants, including cliff saxifrage (above), four different species of violet (blue, round leaved, sweet white, and halberd-leaved, all flowering – purple, yellow, white and yellow blossoms respectively), rattlesnakeweed, bloodroot, pennywort and a plant with small, fluffy white flowers with the amusing name plantain-leafed pussytoes. I ate lots of blue violet blossoms, and a few dandelion and plantain leaves, to boost my Vitamin C. Halberd-leaved violet below.
I got to Nantahalla Outdoor Center around 3. A young woman I had met last night whose trail name I can’t quite recall (something like Fast Storm) was there at the same time staring at the overpriced food on offer outaide one of the restaurants. We decided to go to the general store instead, where I got four small packs of cheese (each enough for one lunch), wraps, and a small jar of Jiffy peanut butter for about $25 USD! Sge got an ice cream cup and a coke. We sat on a bench outside the store, ate and chatted for a quarter hour.
Across the road, outside the outfitters, a man was offering free samples of his company’s MREs – meals ready to eat – so I sampled their vegan risotto. It was decent. Inside the outfitters I bought earplugs (since I seem to have lost mine, and need tgem to drown out the snorers when I sleep in shelters) and a package of Thai curry from the guy’s company. $16 for one large meal. I’m eating it now as a Carolina wren sings nearby. It’s tasty and filling.
The NOC does a lot of whitewater kayak training, as well as whitewater rafting and kayaking trips.
I left NOC atound 4. There wasn’t much chance that I would get as far as the next shelter at a decent time (ETA 7pm given the distance, and it wouldhavebeennineteen mile day). I aimed for a spring that, according to comments in the Far Out app, had some decent tentsites. I was hoping others might also be camped here but alas, tonight I’m on my own (breaking news – after I wrote this post, Squid and Dragonball showed up and we chatted briefly, but I expect they will just hang up their hammocks, hang their food, and go to bed). On the plus side this site is at 2867 feet and the nearest shelter is at 4328 feet so I’m hoping the lower elevation means it’s a little warmer than last night (which was at 4996 feet).
Here’s my campsite. It’s 7:19 pm, the sun is behind the mountains, and it’s getting colder. I’m going to finish eating then head inside to read for a bit. A great day with lots of beautiful mountains to gog at. Was feeling a tiny bit sad about being alone, but now at least hearing Squid and Dragonball talking in the distance is comforting.
Mile 125.6 to mile 139.7 so 14.1 miles.