March 20, 2024 5 min to read

AT Blog: Day 4 and 5

I Hate the Rain

Day 4; Hiking in The Rain

The rain never stopped. It started the previous night and has not stopped. My tents mostly dry but the rain splattered mud onto my door so it’s a little damp.

I waited longer than usual in my tent but the rain kept up. Eventually I had to go, I got all my stuff together in the tent and braced.

Welp it only got worse. After packing up my stuff I ironically spilled my water meaning I only had half a liter left and 2 and a half miles to a water so can’t hydrate too much before hand. John and Waywalker pass by 15 minutes before I leave and I greet them and I learn they are going to low gap shelter. Another 2 people pass by and I learn they are also going to low gap shelter. Turns out low gap shelter only holds 7 people so it became.

The race to low gap shelter

Due to the rain shelters were in high demand (they provide absolute protection from the rain for you and your gear) and a lot of people stopped at neels gap area. There are 3 shelters northbound of neels gap close by at 6, 11 and 19 miles. No one wants to do 19 miles in the rain and 6 is too short of one so everyone at neels wants to go to low gap shelter at 11 miles.

I finish packing and am on my way. The first few hours I am OK, getting wet but fine. I Refill my water, grab a snack and move forth. Augy passes by and he is also going to low gap.

After hiking 5 miles or so I get to Tesnatee gap, meeting up with Auggie, Waywalker and John who are taking a break before the next big climb. I also meet Jared (later Taxi) who is with them. We hike together up the hill (we say we aren’t a trail family but a trail friends for now) and while the hill really sucked we crossed it. Several of them wanted to take lunch at that shelter at 6 miles but I knew that it was down a mile sidepath, so we kept going.

At the top we separated again. I had to stop and get water so I fell behind, the next couple of hours I was by myself worried that the shelter would fill up. I pushed myself hard to make it. I became pretty demoralized as it had not stopped raining it was in the 40s to 50s and now I was soaked. After what felt like hours I passed Waywalker taking a break, then 30 minutes later ran into Jared and John and finally saw Augy as we entered the shelter to find it…

With one person inside! So we snagged our spots learned that guy was moving on and starting making lunch. One of the guys moving on had a hill Billy style bong made out of a Gatorade bottle, Leukotape and a gas can pipe.

Eventually the shelter starts to fill and I meet great people! I was downtrodden when I got there (wet cold and hungry) and it took me a few minutes to warm up to folks. I had great conversations with new people. I also decided to book a night at a hostel called Around the Bend in a few days.

After long conversations, it’s time for bed, crowded, but safe from rain.

Day 5; Safe from the rain, with trail magic on its way!

Early morning at low gap. Over night the rain has stopped. The one downside of staying at a shelter is that when one person wakes up, pretty much everyone has to. I didn’t mind since it wasn’t too early.

Everyone was graceful that the rain had cleared up, we chatted for a while, about breakfast choices, brushing teeth and all sorts of random stuff. I eventually head out around 8:15, which is late considering the time I woke up.

The beginning of the day is a nice generally flat area passing by creeks that source the Chattahoochee river. I ended up taking a break at Blue Mountain shelter for lunch, as John (now Tigger), Auggie and Waywalker caught up to me. I prepped some rice, potatoes and pemmican together.

Eventually I have to go down steep hills to get to Unicoi Gap. Turns out a few folks brought trail magic! They were from Pennsylvania and Georgia and had eggs, bacon, hot dogs, pancakes, chile and cheese sandwiches. I grab myself some sandwiches and get ready for the big climb.

My plan for today is to land at Tray Mountain Shelter for the night, which requires climbing up 2 large mountains.

In total I still have 6 miles left and over 2000 feet of elevation gain. Rocky mountain was very difficult, and took a long time. I ran into Extra and Happy feet on the way up and they said I like to Steam roll up the mountain (I try and resist taking breaks going up).

At the top of the mountain I take a short break (my mom had called me and I missed it so I was seeing what was up… she accidently butt dialed me). Rocky mountain had some good views but I kept pushing.

A lot of people had stopped at the cheese factory campsite, midway up Tray mountain. I wanted to see the views so I kept going. I’m glad I did cause I ran into the boots off trailmagic again! They gave me a Gatorade, oranges and a snickers.

Finally I made it to the top of Tray mountain and then to the shelter. That campsite has amazing views as it lies at the edge of the range, you can see for miles with nothing blocking your vision. Most of the people I know stayed at the gap with the trail magic, and missed this wonderful view!