zero to cherry gap shelter

slept pretty well despite the plastic mattresses. i forgot to drink anything all day so i had to get up and get some water as my muscles were twitching. when i woke up it had been raining on and off all night.

i took a shower and claimed the parfait that kimchi left in the fridge for breakfast. (he took off yesterday for europe) i also made some coffee and added some breakfast essentials that bugs had given me. it wasn’t half bad.

packed up while chatting with magz a bit to make sure she was feeling better after her down day yesterday. rocket took off a bit before quick and i were ready, and we discovered that he left a half case of modelo especial in the fridge. quick and bugs each packed one. i packed two, one for me, and one for rocket when i caught up to him. there were still three beers left. suddenly there was a crack. bugs had decided to have a pre-hike beer at 08:45. quick and i followed suit while we finished packing.

the two of us were on trail not long after 09:00. bugs apparently stayed at the hostel until almost 10:00 waiting for the rain to subside. the weather report was for a 20% chance of rain and something like 1/4”, but if there is one thing we’ve learned over the last few weeks, it’s that north carolina weather people suck at their job. it rained pretty much all day.

the trail was a soggy, muddy, mess. extremely slippery. i took it methodically and paced myself accordingly. quick and i hiked near, but mostly out of sight of one another all morning. i found a big patch of may apples in the forest.

around 12:30 we crossed a road, but it wasn’t a great place to stop for lunch. we did another .8 mile and found a spot just past some power lines. quick seemed quiet. i asked him about it and he indicated he wasny having the best day, but ultimately described it as ‘mellow’.

i couldn’t really disagree. i was also in a mellow mood, but also mentally coping with the rain.

after lunch i called and chatted with magz again for a while, all the time slowly ascending in the rain. eventually magz had to get back to work, and i decided to listen to the playlist she made me. i downloaded it at uncle johnny’s. it was really great, very chill. perfect for hiking in the rain.

the trail wasn’t too steep, and the highlights were ‘beauty spot’, a sort of bald, with a tree quick called a witch tree (a tree with a branch for hanging witches) and the top of unaka mountain, which was a dense spruce forest. there was nothing there except spruce trees and moss. it was dark and stunning.

beauty spot:

unaka mountain:

we ultimately hiked 17+ miles today. it was soggy and slippery, and i made it to the last 500’ before, as i stepped over a log, slipping and falling flat on my back into the mud. somehow i also fell on my arm, so i had trouble getting up. my backpack and camera were completely covered in mud.

i got to camp, pitched my tent, but before opening it, i went down to the water and tried to clean all the mud off me and my stuff. the camera took a while. somehow an entire plug of mud ended up covering the end of the lens. hopefully i cleaned it all off without damaging the apparatus or scratching the lens. the only casualty of the fall was my new to me hiker box sunglasses. it was a pretty lame ending to a mentally taxing day.

thankfully i had the ingredients for a ramen bomb in my food bag (2 ramen packets, and a packet of sour cream and onion dehydrated potatoes), so i tended to my mental state with a giant portion of hot sticky food. i did forget to use the cholula packets i grabbed in hot springs that i was saving for the occasion.

in theory the weather is supposed to dry up, but i’ve lost faith in the north carolina weather prediction professionals. it does seem like it’s not going to be freezing, which is a welcome change.

one additional image from today: