Not many views today, trees in the way. Finally around 3pm there was one exposed rock with a wide view.
There was a major detour around 5.4 miles of the trail, in an area with heavy hurricane damage. According to someone at tonight’s campsite they’re logging in there as well as cleaning the trail. The detour was mostly on forestry roads (some disused) and the parts on trail were extremely steep both up and down, with steps made of logs that were too far apart, so that was a hard slog. I saw my first fellow hiker around 10am on the detour; he was camped far back so we just waved.
Around 1pm I ran into a tramily of 5-6 people including Bird Detective, Megamind, Viking and Energizer. Can’t recall the others. They were hanging out near a water source. I filled up and moved on. Later, one by one they passed me. The young don’t wear out like the old. The hills up really slow me down, especially late in the day. By 4pm I am often taking baby steps uphill or resting every fourth or fifth step. But I get there eventually.
I settled in a campground fairly high up in Ash Gap (5351 feet elevation) and a few tents were already yo. I spoke to my neighbor Rolodex, so named for her great memory fir names. She was waiting for that tramily to arrive. She’s not part of it but has been hanging with them for a couple of days. They did arrive eventually. Not sure how I got back ahead of them on trail.
About 10 of us sat on logs eating dinner and chatting. One woman, hearing that I was Canadian, asked, in French, if I spoke French. We then had a long conversation in French. Her grandparents on one side are from Quebec, and she studied neuroscience at McGill, of all things (my son Wolf is studying neuroscience there now!). She hopes yo doba PhD then a medical degree then open a bilingual clinic in Canada, if we’ll have her.
It’s very windy up here. I hope my tent holds up okay overnight. It’s 20 miles to the Refuge Hostel, where I’ve reserved a bunk fir Tuesday night. So tomorrowvI will probably only walk 12-15 miles and do the rest on Tuesday morning.
It was nice chatting with people around the campsite. I tried asking what others’ plans were for tomorrow to see if we might wind up in the same spot, but no one seemed to know. We’ll just have to see.
Mile 357.9 to mile 377.3 = 19.4 miles.
Hey, what’s the best way to send you a care package along the trail?
I looked into mailing myself food to various post offices or hostels along the way. They will typically hold for a few weeks if addressed to “AT thru hiker Jane Doe, expected arrival May 5-10”.
The challenge with a post office is I might not go through that town (most towns are at least 5 miles off trail, the trail only goes directly through about 6 towns and within a mile of a handful more), and if I do I might arrive on a Friday after 4pm and need to wait until Monday to pick up the care package.
The problem with mailing to hostels is they are almost always away from the trail and you get a shuttle to them, and you can’t predict more than 2-3 days in advance when you’re going to want to stay in a hostel (how close are you, how dirty are your clothes etc.). The shuttle is free if you stay, but if you’re just going to pick up a package, they will charge for the shuttle and for tge package storage.
It’s a nice thought but it probably adds a lot of complexity and so far I am making do really well with just resupplying at local businesses and doing my bit to support the local economy.
Thanks for the comment and great to hear from you.
Thank you for your response! I am rooting for you 😀