Day 10 Wayah Gap to Cold Spring Shelter

Today's miles 9.9    AT miles 125.6

We had an absolutely cracking stay at the Aquone hostel last night and this morning Maggie served us amazing waffles with sliced banana, blueberry jam and butter syrup for breakfast, our first American waffles!  Thank you Steve & Maggie.

We woke up this morning to a thin sprinkling of snow.  It didn't last long though and had almost all melted by the time we hit the trail.  Today was cloudy most of the day but slightly warmer.  Steve shuttled us back to Wayah Gap and we were hiking for 9:50am.  After two longer days of hiking we took it easy today. We were heading for Wayah Bald 5342 ft which had an amazing stone built observation tower on the summit. Wayah means 'wolf' in Cherokee apparently.   The views where fantastic and we actually got to look back on where we'd come from. We could see Albert Mountain and Standing Indian Mountain in the distance, but only knew which ones they were by studying a map relief diagram in the tower.  The trail twists, winds and zigzags through the woods so we're always changing direction.  All the mountains look the same so it's impossible to predict which mountain we will be going up next or look back to where we've come from.

From the tower it was down hill past Wayah Bald shelter where we stopped for a quick break.  The shelter, common with lots of shelters, had coke tins and sticks tied to string hanging from the ceiling which are supposed deter mice from getting to your belongings you hang from them!   

We continued downhill to Burning town Gap where Apple, a trail angel, had set up a tent providing coffee, hot chocolate, Coca Cola and cookies to thru hikers.  Our first trail magic! A trail angel is someone who helps thru hikers out of kindness and generosity, expecting nothing in return.  Apple is retired and voluntarily spends a few weeks at a time on a about four different trails providing thru hikers with refreshments. We just passed by in time, he'd been set up for two weeks and today was his last day, thank you Apple, really appreciated.

From the Gap we only had a mile to go to get to our camp spot for the night at Cold Spring Shelter.  We passed a couple of trail maintenance volunteers from The Nanatahala Hiking Club and had a brief chat to them.  They had just cleared out the shelters privy, can't imagine that was a very nice job, but was great for us and they were making drainage channels along the trail. Great work again by more trail volunteers.

We're here tonight with one other thru hiker, Honeybun, a really nice ex military guy who got his trail name because he eats a lot of 'Honeybun's' (mini cakes).   We managed to get a camp fire going, our first camp fire on trail so far right in front of the shelter and sat around it cooking dinner and chatting with Honeybun.  We're braving the mice sleeping in the shelter tonight as the flat camping area is a little bit further away down the trail, plus its a bit warmer tonight, it shouldn't freeze. When it's really cold it's warmer in our tent.  We sat chatting around the fire until about 8pm then went to bed, a late night for us!

Day 9 Betty Creek Gap to Wayah Gap

Today's miles 18.1   AT total 115.7

Yet again another gorgeous cold, dry, crisp, sunny day.  We were up early, I got a great shot while having my morning pee of our illuminated tent at dawn, and on the trail for 8:15am again today.   We passed the 100 mile mark this morning, woohoo, just before reaching Albert Mountain Fire Tower.  It was a steep climb to the top of Albert Mountain (5250ft) but definitely worth it for the views.  We climbed the tower but couldn't get right onto the top platform of it as it was locked. 

We passed a great display of large icicles, just shows how cold it got the last two nights.  We also passed by a Southbound thru hiker taking a rest, sorry but we've forgotten his name, it could have been Prada or Plodder?  He was one of the last of the 2013 season southbounders apparently.  He must have had some bitterly cold days over the winter.

The trail was relatively easy again today, a few slightly steeper climbs, but as always it was so beautiful in the sunny woods.  Less of a cold wind today so slightly warmer, we were actually able to take our jackets off!
It was our biggest mileage day so far today, but we made good progress and arrived at Wayah Gap at 4:15pm.  From here we telephoned Steve at Aquone Hiker Lodge for a pick up.

Steve and Maggie, the owners are fellow Brits. Steve thru hiked in 2010 and opened this hostel in 2012, they're just starting their 3rd season. The Aquone is an amazing hostel, definitely 5* quality.  We're the only ones staying here tonight so have the place to ourselves.  They provide evening meals and breakfast, laundry, supplies, drying room etc. Maggie cooked a great meal, the first proper meal we've had since starting the trail. We sat and chatted with them for a while after dinner over a beer (Nigel & Steve) & mug of tea (me, Maggie & David) and also with a friend of theirs, David, who popped by.  He was a great character with loads of local wildlife stories to tell.
We handed our laundry over at dinner and by the time we went to bed our laundry had been done. They also provide spare clothes to wear whilst you get everything smelly you own washed.

Day 8 Muskrat Creek Shelter to Betty Creek Gap

Today's  miles 16.2.   AT miles 97.6

Another cold but gorgeous sunny day on the trail.  We left camp at 8:15, there was a good ground frost this morning but once the sun got up higher it soon thawed. The Rhododendrons looked a bit sorry for themselves after the frosty night but soon perked up again in the sun.  There were patches of pretty ice crystals along the trail and a few frozen solid ice patches but nothing that caused a problem walking.
The trail was pretty easy going today, lots of gentle ups and downs and plenty of flat sections.  We had to manoeuvre around and/or over quite a few fallen trees though and the path was quite tree rooty in places.  We passed a sign pointing to the 'Chunky Gal Trail'. How do they think up these names? Nigel wanted me to stand next to the sign for the photo!!!

We passed Deep Gap which had a parking area and trash bins so where able to offload our rubbish.  All rubbish has to be carried out, so its great to pass a bin and offload on trail rather than wait until a town.  From Deep Gap we followed another old forest trail up to Standing Indian Mountain (5498 ft), our highest yet on trail.  The path was a gentle up with lots of zigzags/switchbacks and the same going down.  Switchbacks are something Georgia didn't do so well!
We stopped briefly for a midday sandwich in a nice little sun trap. It was lovely in the sun and out of the wind but out of the sun quite cold.
We passed a couple of hikers resting in the sun at Carter Gap Shelter.  There is an old shelter that only the platform remains  and a new shelter a 100 yards or so further up the trail. A hiker planning on stopping there the night could easily not realise there is another newer shelter not far away.
We passed through some beautiful rhododendron/laurel/azalea forest which at one point had a fantastic view spot.
We arrived at our camp spot Betty Creek Gap at 3pm, a lovely little spot all to ourselves, no one else here tonight.  We'd made great time today, helped by Nigel taking some of my pack weight.  My pack was too heavy for me yesterday after our resupply, I managed but I could feel it in my knees, so today we swapped a few items around and it worked better.  Just after we arrived the two hikers who were resting at Carter Gap caught us up and we realised it was the two lads we had met at the Hiker Hostel, were we stayed the night before we started the trail.  It was good to see them again, albeit briefly, they were carrying on to the next shelter.

Its going to be another very cold evening/night so we're tucked up in our sleeping bags to keep warm again.  For dinner we had one of the prototype Uncle Fools Jerky dehydrated meals we had been given - Beef Chilli.  Really good, just what we needed to warm us up on a cold evening.  We'll be ready to go to sleep at 7pm when it gets dark - hiker midnight!  We have a long 18 mile day tomorrow so need to be up and on the trail early in the morning.  We're heading for Aquone Hiker Lodge for the night, a hostel run by an English couple and previous thru hiker.  We didn't know this but they contacted us via Facebook, so we're looking forward to meeting them.