That morning was pretty chilly. Quailman and Icicle got out of camp before us and headed for Dick's Creek to catch a ride into Hiawassee. We warmed right up on the way out of the gap, planning to camp as low as possible that night due to the forecast for lows in the teens. Cowart Gap looked like a great place on the map, as it was much lower than the shelter at Plumorchard Gap. We look it easy as the terrain was pretty tough and I didn't want to exacerbate my newly healed leg. The climb out of Addis Gap was particularly tough and I felt some strain in my left leg again. I was really worried until I really focused on the pain and realized it was coming from a different muscle group. I assumed I must have bruised the muscle a bit when I fell on my butt the day before. We made good time past Kelly Knob and arrived at Dick's Creek Gap for lunch and water. When we arrived, there was a creepy guy hanging around. I feel bad about saying this, but he was either just real poor mountain folk or a meth head. He was wearing a beat up pair of baggy jeans and a Georgia Bulldogs coat with a ball cap. He was missing a lot of teeth, and seemed just generally not well taken care of. He had an old terrier-type dog with him and was driving a newer Chevy truck. I definitely got a bad vibe from him as soon as we walked up. Thankfully, there was a road crew in the area and a lot of traffic because if there hadn't been, we would have moved on without stopping. He was putting up a shuttle-for-fee sign on the info board and when we walked past to set our stuff on a picnic table, he commented to us that his dog wasn't friendly. The dog was off-leash and looked like it probably wasn't vaccinated at all, so I definitely wasn't comfortable having Sheila so close to it. The dog followed us up to the picnic area and so did the guy. He kept trying to talk to us and we were trying to avoid conversation with him. He kept getting closer as his dog got closer, but eventually he picked up the dog and left. I almost took down his shuttle sign. That has been the only weird experience we've had so far. From the gap, it was only 1.8 miles to where we planned to camp, so we huffed it up the mountain and got to Cowart Gap with some time to spare before sunset. At first, it looked like a great place to camp! Tall evergreens with a nice soft pine needle floor. Picturesque in the fading light of day for sure! Then we started noticing some things. First, the campsite was on an old fire road or a hunting road (not mentioned in the guidebook). Second, all of the lower branches of these lovely evergreens looked dead and deadly. This forced us to pitch camp right next to the fire ring, which brings me to the the third observation. Scat everywhere! This area was clearly frequented by a variety of wildlife, so we would take extra precautions when hanging our bear bag and cooking. Lastly, this was a cold gap. We lost daylight about an hour before actual sunset, which forced us into our tent just after cooking. It was set to be a cold night indeed. I didn't sleep too well that night becasue I was worried about the dog being cold and the possibility of animals coming into camp and the fact that when our sleeping bags are zipped together, they are a little drafty! But we somehow got through the night!
Day 12: Cowart Gap to Muskrat Creek Shelter
What a great day! This was the day we were set to enter North Carolina! One state down, 13 to go! It was freezing when we left camp in the morning. I put toe warmers in my boots to warm them up so that my feet wouldn't be miserable for the first hour. I cannot stand having cold fingers or cold toes. The fingers are easily managed because we bought these awesome Outdoor Research Flurry mitts that keep my hands very warm. The toe warmers are great on very cold mornings. Anyway, we booked it up the mountain in order to warm up. We even put on our rain jackets to cut the frigid wind. About a mile out of the gap, we realized we left Sheila's leash back at the campsite. We set our packs down and Chase jogged back down to get it. While I was waiting for him to come back, I met a group of hikers who had started on February 1st who said they were thru-camping. The one girl, Nomad, had contacted me on Facebook previously, so it was kind of cool to meet them. They were an interesting bunch, offering me a hit off a joint at 10am. They moved on a little while later and only one other hiker passed me while I waited for Chase to come back. Later on, we would learn the name of that hiker and hang out with him a bit, but I don't want to ruin the surprise! Chase came running back up the hill, drenched in sweat and stripped down to his baselayer top. We moved on and picked up the pace a little to make up time. I felt really good the rest of the day. The climbs were all pretty steep but we didn't need to take any long breaks for me to rest up. This made me feel so great! I was healed! I could hike normally again! And we were headed to NC! Such a great day indeed! We met the same thru-camping group at the border and they took our picture next to the sign. Chase held up Sheila so she could be in it too! It's such a great feeling getting that first state down. Georgia is no walk in the park. There are no fireworks or confetti when you pass the border, but I highly suggest making some noise to celebrate! As we passed by whooping and hollering, I remembered our first night on the trail and how everyday is a day to celebrate. We were going to camp at Bly Gap, but I was feeling very good so we pushed to Muskrat Creek Shelter. The climb up Courthouse Bald was fun! It was very steep and very windy, but I was so high from passing the border that it was just a fun challenge. There were no views from the top but it was amazing pushing to the highest elevation we had been at so far. We were also looking forward to being in familiar territory for the next two days, as we had section hiked from Deep Gap to Glassmine Gap over the summer. When we arrived at Muskrat Creek and got water to cook, it was already below freezing. We hurried as quick as we could to avoid freezing the water filter. It's a real problem in the winter. We sleep with the filter on most nights because it could crack if we are not careful. We crawled into the tent, put Sheila in her jacket, and bundled up for a cold night.
Day 13 - Muskrat Creek Shelter to Carter Gap Shelter
Very, very cold morning! So cold that Sheila was actually shivering! She was lying on the ground while we were packing up the tent and stood up shivering. I wrapped her up in my Patagonia Micro Puff jacket to warm her back up. Once we got up and moving everything was fine, so I wasn't too worried about her. I made a mental note just to keep an eye on her during cold mornings. We made quick miles over the relatively easy terrain. I was getting really tired going up Standing Indian Mountain and feeling really discouraged until Chase pointed out that I was moving up the mountain much faster than any other climb previously. I didn't feel so bad after that! We stopped for a longer break at our favorite campsite on top of Standing Indian. It feels so good lying out in the grass in the sun on top of mountain with a view! We aired out our shoes and dried our socks while enjoying a Snickers. Then we got going down to Beech Gap. On the way, we met some section hikers who were pushing a 16 mile days to get to the NOC in 3 days. They passed us by and we weighed our options while taking a break at the gap. We could stay and camp early, or push to Carter Gap and be in a good position to get into Franklin by Sunday, a day earlier than we had planned. We decided that Chase should hike ahead and get to Carter before nightfall and start setting up camp so there weren't as many chores to do when I got there. Sheila and I followed behind him about 5 minutes after he left the gap. I caught up to him about 5 minutes later as he had stopped to talk to the section hikers. They all walked off together and I gave them a couple minute head start so that Sheila would follow me instead of them. Still, I was able to catch this group of fast hikers not too far from the shelter! This made me feel really good about myself, coming from having to take a zero due to injury to hiking my longest day ever quickly was really just the best feeling. We set up the tent near the shelter in a thicket of rhodededron, got water, cooked, and crawled in our bags not long after nightfall. I fell asleep quickly but I woke up around 3am to the sound of something brushing up against the tent. I sat frozen for a few minutes as it happened again and again all around us. Finally I whispered to Chase that there was something outside. He sat up sleepily and listened, commenting that it was probably a skunk or something. I think he was skeptical until he heard it too, on both sides of the tent at the same time. He got a little wide-eyed and started to unzip the tent. He poked his head out and sighed, "It's snow!" The sound was the snow sloughing off of the tent fly! I think it's obvious we are Floridians...
Day 14 - Carter Gap Shelter to Winding Stair Gap
After last night's adventure, we got out of camp around 8 and happily snapped pictures of the winter wonderland we found ourselves in. 1/4 of a inch of snow was all it took to make everything seem magical. I was exciting hiking through this light snowfall because you could see animal tracks on the trail. I would love to pick up a book on tracks and scat and the Appalachian flora, just so we know what's out there! Sheila's paws were a bit unhappy in the snow, so we put on her fleece booties. Dogbooties.com sells these great lightweight socks essentially that secure via an elastic velcro so they actually stay on her feet while she is hiking. Fleece also insulates when wet, so for the snow, these were a great purchase. She was soon trotting along happily again. The snow had melted by the time we got to Betty Creek Gap, and we took a break to prepare for climbing up Albert. We were debating making today a 16-mile day and pushing to Winding Stair Gap to get picked up to go into Franklin a day early. The daunting part of that plan was that we would have 9 more miles to go after summiting Albert, which is a really tough climb. The lure of pizza and beer was too much though, and we decided to go for it! On the way up to Albert we met a Southbounder named Prada. He saw Sheila and immediately recognized her! Sheep Dog has made us famous for sure. We chatted with him about his cold weather hike, about being stoked for 100 miles left until Springer, and took a picture with him. He was a really cool guy, and I hope his final 100 miles were amazing. We pushed onwards and upwards. The climb up was much easier than I remembered from my first hike back in July. We were at the top before I knew it. Sheila had no trouble with the steep ascent. I swear she is part mountain goat. We ate lunch at the top of the fire tower and took some pictures. Then we huffed it to Long Branch Shelter to use the facilities and relax for a bit. 6 more miles to go! A group stopped us at Glassmine Gap and chatted with us about hiking with a dog and thru-hiking in general. They seemed like a newbie kind of group. One guy was in jeans and a button down plaid shirt. We eventually got free of them and booked it down to Winding Stair. We stopped at Rock Gap to rest a minute and I seriously reconsidered pushing on another 4 miles. I was so tired! Sheila was falling asleep on her feet. But the pizza and beer got a hold of us, so on we went! On the last couple of ascents and descents, everything seemed blurry. Fatigue made our legs feel like Jell-O. Night was coming quickly and we would be lucky to be there before 6pm. Finally, we passed the sign for the gap. It seemed like forever to actually reach the road beyond the sign, but we were so happy when we got there. The Budget Inn van picked us up and brought us into town. We settled Sheila into the room and called for a ride to the pizza joint. Vito's Pizza in Franklin will come and pick up hikers from the Budget and bring them in to eat and drink! It was awesome! We ordered a large pizza, a chicken parm sub to split, an order of cheese sticks (which ended up being similar to a small cheese pizza) and a couple of beers. We ended up having leftovers for the next day, which was fine with us. You sleep so well when your fat, clean, and happy.
Day 15 - Zero in Franklin
This zero day sucked! We were so disorganized! We went to breakfast and came back to the room feeling like zombies. The Budget didn't have the boxes we bounced from the Hiawassee Budget, so we had to wait for the Sapphire Inn to bring them by at 11. By then, laundry had to be done before we could run our normal errands. I needed to pick up extra dog food and we needed to resupply through Fontana. We decided to ship a resupply box to Fontana to get us through the Smokies, so we had to buy extra and figure out how to efficiently ship it. We decided to walk to get these errands done, as the 4 o'clock shuttle seemed a little late in the day for us. By the time we hit the pet store and got to the Three Eagles Outfitters, the shuttle had caught up. The outfitter ended up being closed (closes at 4pm on Sunday) so we rode over to Ingles to get food. We ended up holding up everyone else because we were buying 2 weeks worth of resupply. We got back to the hotel and still felt like we had a whole days worth of stuff to do. We planned to ride back to the outfitter in the morning and to hit the post office too. We would try to catch the 11am shuttle back to the trail. We went to bed pretty uneasy with the daunting task ahead!
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