Make it count: Day #5

Tuesday, March 17th - Day #5 - AT Hike

Miles Hiked Today - 11.5 miles
Total Miles on AT - 42.8/2,193 (1.95%)
Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter (tent at Low Gap Shelter)
Total ascent - 3,038’
Total descent - 2,977’

Coming to you live from my tent at Low Gap Shelter - Mile# 42.8 on the AT Trail (8:30pm). Over halfway through the state of Georgia (Georgia has 78 miles on AT) and almost 2% completion of entire trail. Thought I’d start listing the percent complete - just for the fun of it.

Very solid day today. It started with an award winning sleep performance last night - 10pm to 6am (completely out the whole night, no moving, no dreams). It was quite simply - “the perfect sleep”. I’ve been struggling to get consistent sleep in my tent - my body needed last night for sure. I normally sleep well - I just have to get comfortable in the tent. Hopefully it’s a matter of time

11.5 miles today. I was in no hurry to get started - I wanted to wait until 9am at least and get the free breakfast at my cabin. After breakfast, I resupplied my food storage for 5 days and headed out around 10:15am.

The weather was brutal to start. Heavy rains. But — as the day progressed - the SUN STARTED SHINING. The last few hours have been awesome. I got into camp around 4:15pm. Nora, Maddy, Abby, Pepper & Wilson were hanging around the fire pit. I joined them for dinner after setting up my tent. We lounged around talking until near dark - around 8pm. These guys are much younger than me — but really cool “to be part of the group”. I’m going to try and hike some with them tomorrow. We’re going to the same shelter. They have a bit different schedule than mine as far as time goals to complete hike (they hope to complete at the end of August - I’m shooting for mid-August) - but hopefully we can hang for a bit longer.

I took it slow today and tomorrow we have a 15.5 mile day. The first 10 are reasonable and then a couple big mountain passes to end the day. I’m learning - it’s not so much about miles as it is about terrain.

I’m just trying to find my way here on this thing they call the AT Trail. The comradery on the trail is really awesome. Today when I came in - Nora and Maddy were yelling my name (like long lost friends). The hard thing about this Tramily thing is (and I’ve noticed this before coming on the hike while reading books and watching vlogs) —- most of the people in these Tramilies that stick together the whole way are generally taking more down days and hanging out a lot. The group decides the next move. This is a hard thing for me now - I truly enjoy the comradery and sense of belonging to be in a group —- but I really want to get back to Colorado and high altitude train for my BaseCamp trip to Everest in October. I knew this could happen with a dilemma to stay with a group or move on. I’m thinking - I can meet new people all along the way - not hitch my wagon to a few right now. There’s a lot of interesting people out there - I’m going to let this play out for now and reevaluate.

Here’s to an attempt at a strong sleeping performance in my tent — wish me luck!!