Monday, May 18, 2020 8:43 pm 18.1 mi
AT 137.9 Stealth Campsite → AT 156.0 Cody Gap
Weather: AM light rain, sunny long enough to dry out on Cheoah Bald, overcast for awhile, thunder and rain until getting into camp
Trail Conditions: For the most part pretty good – wet dirt, not quite mud. Lots of blowdowns again today
My Condition: This trail is a rollercoaster. Low morning until Cheoah Bald, optimistic resolve bolstering afternoon even in the rainy climb up Jacob’s Ladder (about 650 ft elevation gain in half a mile), stubbed my toe avoiding a blowdown and found water in one of my dry bags, so lowish evening
Kept climbing and climbing and climbing today – lots of elevation gain. Physically felt pretty good – taped up my feet when I felt hot spots forming, but otherwise body held up to a tough big mile day. Emotionally I was all over the place. At first thinking I’m not cut out for this, then feeling encouraged and bolstered by what I’d done, then feeling defeated and wondering why this is so hard and asking myself why I’m out here. Tonight I’ll spend some time looking back over my Appalachian Trials lists. Lots of pretty flowers, my first orange salamander, sunbathing solo on Cheoah Bald, and lots of bumblebees. I have been very encouraged by the number of bumblebees I’ve seen buzzing about busily at work. Haven’t seen a whole lot of people – one day hiker headed the other direction, and one overnighter set up with her camp. Stecoah Gap, a parking lot with a couple of picnic tables and trash bins, had the bins completely taped closed and a sign. North Carolina has so many natural wonders – it’s a shame that COVID is having such an impact on the state’s hospitality and ability to manage its natural resources.
Post Trail Analysis
I’m excited to see where the turning point was, but at this point I sure do complain a lot and seem to doubt myself! The trail never really got easy – Virginia is supposed to be flat, blah blah blah. Don’t believe what you hear about the trail. People tend to exaggerate it one way or the other – the rollercoaster was so easy, the rollercoaster was impossible, Mahoosic Notch is the toughest mile of the trail, Mahoosic Notch was fun and a piece of cake. Ignore everything you hear and form your own opinion! Me, I never found that the trail got any easier. I just got tougher and believed in my ability to finish the thing more and more, but I was still huffing and puffing, sweating up a storm, and sore as heck even 2100 miles in to the thing. First Red Eft sighting – how cool! There were days, especially after particularly rainy days, that I didn’t feel like I looked up from the trail at all simply trying to avoid stepping on one of these beauties they were so prevalent. I was pretty unhappy about the trash can being taped up – COVID or not, I have a hard time seeing the logic in making a trash can inaccessible. I can’t think of any rhyme or reason for doing something like that if you’re an employee tasked with protecting and preserving the outdoors. I always really looked forward to being a responsible steward of the outdoors and unloading all my trash and what I pick up along the way when I’d see one, and it really felt like a low blow to stumble upon that.
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