Cold Days – Fox’s AT Thru Hike – Day 5

Today was one of those days where you just want to hide in your sleeping bag and it was getting colder and colder. I am using https://www.atweather.org for the climate but there is some confusion about its forecast. Is it whatever the nearest city is? Does it take into account the change in altitude? They probably have the details somewhere on the site, to be fair, but I don’t have enough signal to go digging.

At the beginning, I encountered an interesting scene, food everywhere and a stun gun. I grabbed about a pound of wrapped sliced ​​American cheese to take to the next trash can and kept walking. Around the next bend I ran into an ATC ridge runner, briefed him on the Tazer and told him I had picked up some of the trash. He pointed to a bag of wet tortillas ten feet behind him and said I could get it too if I wanted. As an afterthought I asked if there was a trash can in the next hole. “No,” he replied over his shoulder. I feel cheated.

I arrived at Low Gap Shelter, about 7.5 miles away, around noon. I think this is the challenge of maintaining 8 miles a day in Georgia. After a long lunch, I really don’t feel like sitting around for five hours until dark. Given the cold and wind, I want shelter tonight.

Growing up we called it angel hair.

Back to that cold. I have an ever-growing series of ways to stay warm enough. The first stage is just the quilt and fleeces, followed by all my layers, followed by wrapping them in my tent to protect me from the wind, followed by measures like fire, emergency blanket, etc. I’ll be fine, at worst a little cold.

Somewhere along the way today I decided I’d better be taken to Hiawassee. I was able to get in touch with a shuttle driver and also a room for tomorrow night. It means very few miles tomorrow, but a full day in the city to sort it out.

View from Blue Mountain Shelter

• Breakfast: oatmeal
• Lunch: None
• Dinner: Dal Makhani
• Snack: freeze-dried chocolate covered strawberries, stroopwafels and pb, nuts, granola, pro bar
• We meet today: Jorge (section hiker)
• Days without ramen bomb: 5

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