Day 2: Neel’s Gap to Tray Mountain

Fried chicken trail magic…my first of the AT

There was a huge storm last night, so I was happy to be inside for most of it. The hostel overbooked (I was so stoked to get there to claim the last bunk–only to be told after I received the bunk ticket that it had gone to someone else. They were super nice, though, and said I could stay on the staff couch).

Ran into Baltimore Jack and Matt, who gave me trail magic after Hiwassee in 2007 and I also ran into at the PCT Kick Off last year.

Many thanks to Lumpy, Rachel, and Tits McGee for half a pizza and all the leftover hotdogs at Neel’s Gap. Not the healthiest dinner, but a good one.

Ran into Trek at the hostel, who said he ran into my old boyfriend/hiking partner, Frogs, out on Springer yesterday. Funny that he’d be out there the very day I had planned to start! Hope his training is going well.

Ran into Wren at the hostel, another lady hiking solo. So stoked to see her and Moosette out there.

Got out of Neel’s Gap at 6:30 and it was raining as I hiked in the dark, but the sun came up and it cleared. I walked with a weekend hiker named Star (!) with his dog for about an hour and learned a lot about GIS and mapping from him. Some older guys out for the weekend told me they ran into Trek and I was wondering how he was ahead of me given that I started so early. I finally caught him at Blue Mtn Shelter, where I took a break, and discovered he left at 5:45!!

Got Frankenfoot’s trail magic at Indian Grave Gap—fried chicken!!! Apparently, I ate it so voraciously that he had to take a photo. Glen and Kevin were there, too.

Pulled into Tray Mtn at 5:50 and met two awesome thru-hikers who did Peace Corps in Armenia–so I had to ask them about Armenia. I mean, I certainly hadn’t heard of anyone who had even been to Armenia. Apparently, it is the size of Maryland, and the bus system runs better interprovince than intraprovince. Also, very easy to hitchhike there.

That’s all for now.