Day 7 through 12
Since I last blogged a lot has happened! I've met some beautiful souls & hikes some crazy hikes. The thing about doing something like this (thruhiking) is you get really intimate with the people you spend your time with. Privacy is rare, people's generosity continously grows and a bond seems to form stronger & faster out here then it does back in babylon. Everyone is hiking their own hike yet everyone is in this together.
Noah started hiking with me & EZ. He is an old soul from Indiana. He is phenomenal! The first night we were together we camped out at the cheese factory site on Tray Mountain with a handful of other hikers. Bonfire & group harmonica sessions went well into the night! The wind that night was wicked (no idea how my tent didn't get blown off that ridge).
We woke up the next morning to some of the worst conditions we've had to hike in yet! Hiking up & down Tray was freezing. It was 38 degrees with 45mph winds & everything we owned was wet. We opted to cut our miles down from 14 to 10 and camped at deep gap shelter for fear if we continued it would turn into ice and we didn't want to risk hypothermia. We met paperclip there & he joined us for a few days, which lead to some extremely insightful conversations, hopefully I'll run into him again!
We went into Helen to wash all of our cloths and dry out everything we owned. We shoved five hikers in one hotel room. Then the next morning shoved five hikers in the bed of a pickup truck to get back to the trail.
We crossed the Georgia / North Carolina border and we camped on a blueblaze trail called "Raven Rock Trail" - near Muskrat Shelter. There is a small plane crash which is an interesting sight. And past that is the BEST view I have seen on the trail yet!!
Shortly after being in North Carolina we realized we didn't have enough food to get to the next town. So we bushwacked through 12 miles of untouched forest to get to a road & hitch into Franklin and get some food and take our first zero day!!
IG: @madelineire
ciao!
I'm safe and having the time of my life!
