Day Two: Springer Mountain to just past Hightower Gap

Make no mistake, it was a cold night. And there was a lot of snoring! All night long. For the most part, even though I didn't sleep a lot, I was warm during the night. But there was a lot of noise to deal with - wind noise, people noise, noise - and I was awake frequently and for long stretches of time. I was hoping we weren't planning to spend many nights in shelters. Sleeping in groups is not really my thing. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure it's not Chuck's thing either...

One of the late arrivals last night was a young woman from New Hampshire. She didn't bring a tent, she brought a hammock. Full of exuberance for her upcoming adventure, she had set it up between two trees. Many of the people in the shelter tried to convince her to come in and share a tent with someone if it got too cold, but I guess she didn't feel comfortable with that idea. She had a cold and unpleasant night. As soon as she could, she called for a shuttle to take her up the trail to Neel Gap. Three of the others who had spent the night in the shelter joined her. A little scary to think that only 0.2 miles into the Appalachian Trail and four people were bailing. What was to come?

Chuck and I decided to stay in our tent while all the other shelter occupants packed up and left. Well, I stayed in the tent. Chuck watched the activity for a bit. Finally, he got cold and came back into the shelter.  We both fell asleep once all the people were gone. It was blissful. When I awoke, it was noon. Yikes! Chuck was inclined to spend the day in the shelter due to the cold. But, I was restless. We were rested, we had lots of clothes, we should be walking! It didn't take much for Chuck to come around to my point of view.

It was definitely a chilly start. More snow had fallen overnight. I put on most of my clothes - two fleece tops, my down jacket, tights, wind pants, hats, gloves... you name it, I was wearing it. We set off, expecting the worst. Fortunately, the exertion warmed us up quickly. Soon, we were back to loving the walking and marveling at our surroundings.

Icy!!!

Chuck suggested we plan to simply make the next shelter 2.6 miles away. That seemed like an easy -to-accomplish goal, and I personally hoped we would make it a bit farther. We passed through some sections of the trail that seemed almost like a jungle. We weren't sure what the bushes were, but the feel was distinctly reminiscent of Hawaii to us both (granted though a Hawaii with a dusting of snow). Maybe they are rhododendrons - although they look more like trees than bushes.

We reached the Stover Creek Shelter fairly early in the day. There were already a number of people who had decided to stop for the day. They had built a fire, and we enjoyed warming ourselves for a bit. The shelter looked like it was going to be crowded, and we both agreed we still had lots of energy. So, we had a bite of lunch and then put our packs back on and headed off.

We were in good spirits, and we seemed to be making good time despite our late start. As we moved along, the snow was disappearing. Hooray! We stopped to admire nature's handiwork all along the trail:

Fungi growth on trees

 

The walk was fairly easy - gentle descents AND gentle climbs. Eventually we reached the next shelter, Hawk Mountain Shelter - 5.3 miles beyond Stover Creek. We definitely did have energy!! The shelter looked pretty crowded, and so we decided to keep moving. We kept going for another mile and a half, making today's mileage 9.4! I was impressed that despite our very late start, we'd managed to get our planned mileage completed.

We found a clear, if slightly slanted, spot to camp.  Chuck piled leaves all over the ground to help make the ground a little more level. I was hoping it would make the ground a little softer, as I tend to wake up with sore hip joints from sleeping on my side. We finished right as it started to get too dark and settled into the tent for a well-earned rest.