PCT

First I must address the fact that I will not be hiking the PCT this year. My life is in need of repair. Financially I need to catch up, and whilst my possessions need not worry me, the growth of some of my personal relationships have been stunted by my unavailability. I have other dreams that need attention RIGHT NOW, and fully intend to return to long distance hiking when my life is in a more stable position. But for right now, I’ll utilize this new blog to share with you some of my other passions.

Me and Wolfpack met in West Asheville to eat at The Standard Pizza Company. We caught up a little bit on each other’s lives. Even in the threat of rain, we walked half a mile down the road to Hops and Vines to pick up some canned beer for our trip. We chose Old Chub by Oscar Brewing Company, a rather smooth 8.0% Scotch Ale.

After driving back to my residence, we took the rodeo to the trail head. We hiked the first very uphill three miles of the Art Loeb Trail. Wolfpack was quickly being worn by the higher elevations; My shoes were poorly tied and creating hot spots on the balls of my feet. As a measure to ensure that we could hike the next day, we set up our tarps at Neil Gap.

We had a beer each and retired without a good water source. In the morning we hiked dry for a few miles until Butter Gap, and the Butter Gap shelter. I hadn’t eaten nearly enough that morning so I cooked up a second breakfast, and we got back to hiking. Me and my hiking partner hopped, skipped, and jumped over the next couple mountains. When we got to Gloucester Gap I knew we were in for a challenge.

I threw on some tunes and powered my way up the seemingly endless approach of Pilot Mtn. When I got to the top, my success was well rewarded by another Old Chub. I tried to catch as much of a breeze as I could, not only because of the heat, but the flies were terrible on top of every mountain we ascended that weekend.

The Day’s challenges were all but over. We still had Sassafras Knob to climb, and in the style western North Carolina trails, It was straight up and over. Following that climb was another to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and YET ANOTHER to Black Balsam. Wolfpack was beat physically and I had spent the whole day ignoring my water intake. We hiked off the side of Black Balsam via the Art Loeb Spur and walked along Investor’s Gap to find water and flat space to Camp.

What we found was some tree cover next to a field occupied by a father and son. The younger was friendly and seemingly responsible as he picked up dead sticks, no matter how few were available. The elder was giving us the stink eye for existing, bad-mouthing us from the other side of a patch of rhododendron, and cutting down green wood. Never discount the wisdom of youth. If I hadn’t been so worn, I’d of trekked back to the Black Balsam Parking Lot to find a ranger to cite him.

I took an afternoon nap in my bug bivy as the weather grew colder. Wolfpack greeted my groggy post-nap self with an Old Chub he had chilled in the near by water source. In the evening I cooked a meal and made a tiny one person fire for the two of us to stare at mindlessly while we drank our beer. As the fire died out, I set up my shelter and fell quickly asleep in this ever-changing terrain.

In the morning, I attempted to match the rate at which Wolfpack packed up his gear. I wouldn’t want to be dead weight keeping him from hiking as much as he could whilst he had time off from work. I had brought oatmeal to cook up in the morning, whilst he had decided only to cook his dinners. I completely respect his decision as I had gone stove-less for the second half of the AT. Part of me wished I had left it at home, along with my Waterproof bivy as it was unnecessary.

“The weight that one carries on one’s back is equal to that of one’s responsibilities.”

We made the decision the night before to take it easy and not hike the length of the Art Loeb twice. After passing our planned site for the night before, we took Shining Rock Ledge to Shining Rock Gap and climbed Shining Rock, only to meet up with some people we had met the day before. We bush-wacked off that huge hunk of quartz, I got water and we proceeded to make the rough trek over Stairs Mountain. It’s name is pretty appropriate because of the cycling transition between hiking straight up and on flat.

This monolith took it out of us and we hung out in Deep Gap for at least an hour before stringing up our packs and climbing the Cold Mtn trail. In the mean time we got to know two hikers named Tara and Mike following a similar route as ours. We discussed our favorite foods and other things hikers talk about :)

Climbing up Cold Mtn was worth it, but the view was obscured by a cloud of bugs that never seemed to relent. We walked off the mountain as quickly as we had walked up it. This was followed by more time in Deep Gap and the inevitable jaunt back over Stairs Mtn. We struggled to find a suitable place to set up two tarps at Shining Rock Gap. Memorial Day weekend brought the more obnoxious crowd to the wilderness, and we eventually walked down the Shining Creek Trail denying ourselves our dinners until we found a flat spot to pitch two tarps. Both me and Wolfpack had taken a beating on all that downhill.

I cooked up some Tortellini and tuna whilst Wolfpack consumed ramen and Tyson chicken.