Corridor 9

After a brief trip into town for the last piece of civilization we were expecting to see for another 5 days, we made the long drive up to New Found Gap. It was here that I took the time to use the facilities one last time before having to dig trenches and exposing my white derrière to the cold unforgiving wind.

Just before we set out on the trail we asked 2 other hikers to take our picture. They were military veterans that had just returned from a cold night at Mt. LeConte. One of them informed us that while the wind was killer, there was little rain or snow to be had. This was a bit disheartening as I was really looking for a nice snow to blow in. We thanked them greatly and set off on our slow hike to the top of the mountain.

About half a mile into the woods we met up with 2 more hikers who had set up a food cache for their trip this winter. A food cache is a place where backpackers will store food and other supplies that they will use along the trip. Rather than carrying their entire supply load the whole trip, making for extremely heavy packs, most hikers will drive somewhere close to the center of their hiking itinerary and leave a canister of food that they can pick up along their hike. One a 10-12 day hike, have a midpoint food cache can lighten the initial pack more than 12 lbs.

We were all going to be staying at the Mollies Ridge shelter, so we parted ways and headed off. I was already feeling warm due to the fast pace I was keeping, so I slid out of my Red Ledge Covert Fleece jacket and simply left my vest covering my GoLite DriMove shirt. I thought that I would be cold, but when you’re moving that well through the woods the body will generate an enormous amount of heat. Unfortunately Coy left his poles at home, so he wasn’t as fast as usual, but we stayed relatively close this first day.

After stopping half way to down a trail bar and some water I ran into the most peculiar sight I think I’d ever seen. There was a lot of wind activity this winter and some of the trees in the area had been blown down. One particular tree was right next to the Appalachian Trail. You can see in the picture above how the trail was uprooted with the tree and leads straight up to nothingness. There were numerous other blow downs too that forced us to crawl, shuffle, and wade through thigh high mud to get around. Luckily we weren’t that far from the shelter and our own little bit of peace.