Fall AT section hike, day #7

Friday, September 30, 2016
Start: US 19E/Mountain Harbour hiker hostel
End: Moreland Gap shelter
Miles: 18.4

This morning, I was up around 7am. I pulled all my things together and was up at the house with Towanda by 7:45am for breakfast. We had a lovely breakfast - there was egg soufflé, fried potatoes and onions, fresh cinnamon rolls, muffins, blueberry pancakes, and biscuits and gravy. We rolled out of the hostel and got on trail by 9am. Towanda hiked with me until 10:30am when she headed back to US 19E to meet her ride at noon.

Overall, today was fairly easy. The trail was smooth and while there were frequent changes in elevation, they were fairly small. There was also many sources of water; most noted springs were running. The weather has been fairly cool as well, getting into the low 70s, so I've needed less water to keep up with my sweat. On today's travels, I passed by Mountaineer Shelter.

As we were hiking this morning, we saw signs indicating that Watauga Lake shelter is closed again due to bear activity. I looked over my miles for tomorrow and found a new hostel 0.2 miles off trail 2 miles shy of my intended goal. I called to double check they were open; so my day tomorrow will be even shorter than today. I'll have one big ~1,600' climb in the afternoon but other than that, it looks like a relatively easy day.

Fall AT section hike, day #6

Thursday, September 29, 2016
Start: Hughes Gap/TN 1330
End: US 19E/Mountain Harbour hiker hostel
Miles: 21.4

This morning, Mike dropped me off to Hughes Gap (4040') around 7:30am. I started up the trail and climbed up to Toll House Gap (6212') and walked past the side trail for Roan High Knob Shelter (6193'). From there, I went down to Carvers Gap/TN 143/NC 261 (5512'). I made amazing time and arrived around 10:15am. I tried to call Towanda to let her know I was there early but I couldn't get enough service to call so I waited until she arrived at 10:45am.

We started up the trail by ~11:15am. We climbed Round Bald (5813') and Jane Bald (5790') and then descended past Stan Murray and Overmountain Shelters (5045' & 4657'). From there, we climbed up Little Hump Mountain (5459'), down to Bradley Gap (4950'), and then up to Hump Mountain (5587'). On our way up Hump Mountain, we had a little bit of rain and a lot of fog and wind. After we summitted and started to go down, the wind blew the storm away and gave us some nice views. We then proceeded to race the storm to the hostel. We descended past Doll Flats and the NC/TN border (4600'), and down to US 19E (2895'). From there, we walked the 0.3 miles to the hostel, arriving at 6pm.

We snagged 2 of the remaining 3 hostel spaces. Towanda managed to convince someone at the hostel to drive us into town to get pizza, and let everyone order something if they wanted to. I took care of the money details and figuring out who owed how much. I was able to shower and do a load of laundry. I checked on my food supply and I have enough to get me to Damascus, provided I either get some snacks for the last day at a campground on my last night before town or pay a hostel in town to bring me to town a day early and then slackpack me. We shall see how I feel! Currently have lovely weather outlooks and I'm feeling pretty solid. Towanda will hike with me for a few miles in the morning tomorrow before heading back to US 19E to get a ride back to her car at Carver Gap.