After three days of hiking I’ve made it to Hiawassee. I’m not staying in town, but at the Top of Georgia Hostel, just .5 miles away from the AT. The first day from Neel Gap was pretty easy, I went a little over 11 miles and stayed at the Low Gap shelter. It was a nice place, the creek was really pretty. Here’s a little photo of my camp that night.
The next day was hard to predict. There was a slight chance of rain and thunderstorms all day, and I didn’t want to put myself on top of Tray Mountain in a thunderstorm, so I had to plan around that. At Unicoi Gap I had another instance of trail magic. There was a church group out doing some bbq and they even had some fruit! I took a banana with me on the trail and had it for breakfast the next day. It was all really nice, but once the proselytizing started I thanked them for the food and headed on.
That night I camped at an old cheese factory that had been abandoned since the 18oo’s. The only sign of a past building was a road that went through the area, Tray mountain road I believe. The weather was really nice all day, and there wasn’t a drop of rain. That changed.
The rain started as a light drizzle at about 4 am. It only grew stronger and stronger. By the time I needed to get going it was a complete downpour. I was soaked. Everything inside my tent stayed relatively dry, but I think I could have pitched my tent in a much better direction. I learned that if my head or feet are pointed towards the wind, I should be ok, but if a vestibule is getting the brute force of the wind, I will get wet. The things you learn. All in all, it was fine, but I needed to stay in a shelter the next night.
Rather than have a long 13 mile day after a night of rain, I decided to call it just 3 miles before Dicks Creek Gap. This was a good choice because I was going to need a reservation at Top of Georgia Hostel. I was able to call at Deep Gap shelter. I got an awesome nights sleep that night, despite people reporting sounds of mice running around the shelter. I had ear plugs so that helped.
This morning I took a nice stroll through 3 miles of beautiful forest and came to TOG hostel near 10:30. This gave me plenty of time to take a shower, get my laundry done, and go into town with some friends. Lunch was amazing! I had a spicy blue cheese burger with tater tots and a side salad. After all that we went to Ingles, essentially Safeway. There I resupplied all my food that I’ll need until Franklin, NC. The plan tonight is to have some stir fry. It’s hard to get veggies on the trail, so it seemed like a good choice. I’ll be sharing with Brittany from South Dakota and Katrin from Berlin. We all started the same day and seem to have a similar daily pace. It seems our paths will meet many a times.
Here’s us in our scrubs they give us.
I’m never sure when I’ll post next, but I’m pretty sure it will be after I leave Georgia. Talk to y’all then!
-Orion
Thanks for the update. I’m glad that the weather didn’t beat you too down.
Does the Hostel give you scrubs so that you can wash all your clothes at once? Also do get to cook a communal type dinner at the hostel?
I’m glad you are getting to know some other thru-hikers, and they are from all over the world too. I look forward to hearing more stories.
Yes, they have a communal kitchen. Also, they give us scrubs and then a clothes basket and then they do our laundry. It was all really nice and the whole thing together was just $30. It includes a shuttle, a breakfast, and a shower.
Also you look good in purple.