Trevor called late this afternoon from Siler Bald Shelter in North Carolina. He is still hiking with Mountaineer but hasn’t heard from or seen Cotton and Nattie since they left the trail to have Cotton’s knee checked out. Hopefully they’ve made it back on the trail and are healthy.
Before leaving Hiawassee, GA, Trevor purchased enough food to get him through his current hike and also a 5 day hike while in the Smoky Mountains. He shipped the Smoky food ahead to Fontana Dam which is at mile 164 and at the base of those mountains. This way he can resupply easily just before undertaking that hike and avoid having to leave the trail to buy food.
He left Hiawassee on Wednesday morning and hiked 17 miles, crossing the GA/NC state line and staying at the Standing Indian Shelter. Below is a picture he sent me from his cell phone of the actual GA/NC sign which is nailed to a tree on the tail.
On Thursday he hiked 14 miles to the Big Spring Shelter. Trevor said that hike was very interesting because the last ½ mile to the shelter included a 400 foot climb up a rock face. He said they had to literally use their hands and feet to climb up these rocks! When he got to the top there was a tower that gave him a terrific view of the mountains and town of Franklin, NC.
I asked Trevor about the type of terrain he was encountering and he said there are times where the trail really isn’t much of a trail. He has had to walk down the middle of a stream that was actually the trail and also traverse small ledges with drop offs. I asked about animals and he said other than normal creatures like birds and squirrels, he hasn’t encountered much. He did say there were two mice crawling on his tent last night and he had to knock them off. YUCK! He said he normally wakes up at 6:15 am, starts hiking by 8 am, and then goes to bed around 7:30 pm.
Tomorrow he plans to hike 13 miles to the Cold Spring Shelter. Here is a picture of that shelter from the AT Conservancy website. Since I don't yet have photo's from Trevor I thought everyone might like to see what a typical AT shelter looks like.
He expects to arrive at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) on Sunday. The NOC http://www.noc.com/ looks like a great place to relax and he plans to overnight there and eat some real food. I expect to hear from him sometime Sunday and will post an update at that time.
Regarding his SPOT GPS tracker – he’s tried and tried to get it to track and it’s just not working. He plans to ship it home from NOC and we will get a replacement sent to him. Hopefully within a couple weeks we’ll have it up and running!
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