Day 5

Saturday April 11

Mile 45

Today was a great day. We had a clear but windy night with lots of dew. Woke up and was on trail by 8:15. I left before everyone else knowing that they would catch up soon.

Met a some people from North Carolina and Michigan on the way and talked to them for a minute. Dakota and Mariah caught up quickly as I descended from an overlook. They passed me when I stopped to get water.

Aaron and Ashlee quickly caught up as well. We passed a guy who told us about trail magic at tesnatee gap so that got us moving.

We all caught up at wolf Laurel top and the view there. Headed down but I forgot about cowrock mtn before we got to the gap. So we had a little more uphill than I expected. The thought of oranges kept us going though.

We stopped on cowrock for a break and headed down where we met the church group with surprise trail magic of snack bags. Slim Jim's, Reece's eggs, and peanuts were in mine. That was very appreciated.

Finally got to the gap and the oranges. They were ice cold and AMAZING. A cold orange on a hot hike is simply magical. I ate some snacks as well and some water.

After a short break we set off up wildcat mtn. It was hard but luckily it is a short climb. Came down the other side and got water before setting off for low gap.

It was warm and the uphill was tiring. I dropped back for a couple of miles before I caught back up to Aaron and Ashlee right before the shelter. Dakota and Mariah were already at the shelter. We all decided to take a couple hour break before heading on to a campsite about 1.5 miles further.

While at low shelter, we heard about trail magic we missed at hogpen gap of sodas and bananas. Oh well. At least we got something.

There were lots of people coming into the shelter by the time we left. Low gap is the next stop for most after Neels gap, which was full last night, so we knew everyone would be heading there.

It was going to get loud with the people that were staying and we wanted quiet.

We headed on up the trail and the first campsite was full but it wasn't the one I was thinking about anyways. The guide book wasn't very clear on which one was which site but we finally got to the one I planned on staying at.

We set up and pretty soon two others from the shelter joined us - catman and his friend. We got a fire going to keep the bugs away (lots of bugs again) and talked for a long time.

Most of us stayed up talking until about 845 and then we headed for the tents.

Going to be another good day tomorrow and we are planning a longer one so we can get into town earlier because of the rain that is coming Monday.

Great day overall, first trail magic, and making progress on the AT.