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aklarsen11

Day 46: Cold, Wet and Windy

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Today was my worst day on trail so far. It started off well. Woke up in the shelter warm and dry after a night of rain. The rain stopped by the time we got moving, but it was still cloudy with the wind causing water to fall from the trees. Shortly after we got started it started to hail. It was not fun getting smacked in the face with pebble sized ice. Stopping and resting was not an option because the only thing keeping me warm from the wind was moving. Not Sure decided to get off at Iron Mountain Road and return to Erwin to have his knee looked at. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious and he can join us down the trail. 2 Knees and I decided that we didn’t want to stay out in this weather, so we decided to get picked up at Hughes Gap which was another 9 miles. It was A LONG 9 miles. There was nothing particularly hard, but the weather just drained my energy. I could never quite get warm. The up was hard having no energy and the down was challenging because the trail was washed out and muddy. I slipped and fell a couple times but was able to catch myself, so I didn’t get completely muddy. At 3pm we finally made it to Hughes Gap and was met with the best Trail Magic. A group of friends was camped out for a few nights and they were grilling burgers. I had 3 ☺️. Our shuttle driver was over an hour late, but she eventually got to us. I think she was a little tipsy because she kept slurring her words, but we made it to the hostel alive. Won’t be using her again. The Refuge is a brand new hostel that only opened a week or so ago. I met the owner, Close Enuff, on trail around Hiawassee. He started at Springer and hiked to his hostel to open it. It’s so nice and with Norovirus going around it’s great to have the place to ourselves. Perfect place to slack pack for a few days and build my morale back up. Also, I told Close Enuff I would like some Diet Coke next supply run he makes. He went to the store shortly after. Perfect pick me up for the end of the day 🥰

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