February 27, 2018
Destination: Gooch Mountain Shelter
Today’s Miles: 11.40
Start Location: Three Forks
Trip Miles: 15.70
Today I woke to daylight at Three Forks. It was a brisk morning – someone said 36, but I think where I was it was probably closer to 40. I ate two packets of maple brown sugar oatmeal and a cliff bar, and had some instant coffee. It was delightful! I blundered around camp a bit, kicking stuff over and whatnot and spilling water, because that’s what I do. Enjoying every minute of it, I headed out at about 9:45. I made it about half a mile before I ate another cliff bar :-). The morning was absolutely gorgeous! Stunning sunlight through the rhododendron made me smile and feel wonderfully small.
It was a blue sky day all day. I passed a handful of hikers, including a girl named Cat who I had seen yesterday. It’s hard for me to remember names, but hers was easy given my space cat hat.
Machine gun fire littered part of the day. I passed a hiker who said it was from an M40 (Dad, maybe this means something to you, but to me it just means “big gun”). There is a military training area not too far away, hence the fire. Shortly, I passed a southbound guy who was doing some sort of military training. He was carrying a rucksack and what looked like an axe in one hand. He said hello but moved quickly on. The views from the trail were amazing! Lots of clear vistas with many peaks in the distance.
I made it to Gooch Mountain shelter at about 3:30. Tom, a volunteer AT ambassador, greeted me and gave me a ton of super useful information. He said that rain and thunderstorms would move in around 2am and follow us all day tomorrow. That made my choice to stay st the shelter easy. We are going to be packed in like sardines! No one wants to tent in the rain. Hopefully it isn’t too hard to sleep.
No blisters yet! Met a girl with 4 today – ouch! Tomorrow wet feet will potentially break my streak.
The couple from Maine are here! They are very cool. The guy Kevin has a trail name now – Bear Meat! He gave someone some bear jerky and that was it. His wife Cassandra saw me and said she had a trail name for me – Hungry Cat, after my hat! I loved it right away and told her I would embrace it. I thought about food all day, so it is not an ill-fitted name. I love the tradition of trail names. I came out here to have an experience, and maybe become a better version of me. I want to live up to the Hungry Cat name, whatever may come, whatever that means….
I ate a Knorr Mexican fiesta rice side for dinner and enjoyed chatting with other hikers. I met two guys from Mount Pleasant, SC and told them how much Gillian and I like to go there. As I type this, the sun has gone down so it is time to get organized for bed. A crowded house requires a bit of organization. No signal here so I will have to back post. I’m so grateful for this shelter and the camaraderie here tonight. Hungry Cat, out!
You might also like
