Day 20 – Rainbow over Max Patch

After staying up late last night to work on blog posts, it was nice to sleep in. An added bonus for being in a real bed. I headed towards the hotel’s free breakfast, which at 9:00 am was disappointing, to say the least. Pretty much everything was gone, but I was able to make some food and coffee and worked on my plan for the day.

everyone has plans

I was originally going to take it easy and go just 8 miles to the first shelter, but with the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow calling for a lot of rain, I was starting to think of alternative ideas. Becca offered to pack me up, taking most of my stuff and leaving it in a space 11 miles off the trail, where someone was doing magic on the trail yesterday and today. This could prepare me for 16.5 miles and a 5,600 foot elevation gain to the next shelter. Not something I wanted to do too much after 3 of the last 4 days were pretty exhausting. But, after some convincing, I finally agreed to the plan. With a plan in place, I headed back to the room to organize my things while Becca bought us some iced coffees for the road. Because who doesn’t want a good coffee from time to time?

Up, up and away

Around 11:00 am they dropped me off where I left off yesterday, the bridge over the Pigeon River, and I started walking for the day. The first part of the day, and really the whole day, mainly included a big climb out of the gap and back into the mountains. In fact, the first 5+ miles were purely uphill, and while they weren’t steep, their length was certainly something worth noting.

Almost to the top of Snowbird Peak

But after reaching the top of Snowbird Peak, the constant climbing ended. And while there were still plenty of climbs left, they were also interspersed with some descents, providing much-needed variety to the day. While the day started out sunny and fairly warm, as the afternoon rose and progressed, it became cloudy and windy. It finally culminated in ~30 minutes of steady rain. When I got to the gap where the Trail Magic had been happening and Becca dropped my stuff, there was no one there. I was already packed but they left my things on the side of the trail. Which was nice, they left them there, however with the rain on and off some of my stuff was a little damp which was a shame. But I packed all my things, sorted them and went on my way.

Maximum patch

However, the highlight of the day was in the afternoon, arriving at the Max patch! There was a small climb and as you reach the top you can see the wide grassy space above. Reminding me of the old Gateway Computers wallpaper.

Max Patch in all its glory

On the way up it was raining, but as I got closer to the top it stopped and the sun came out for a while. Although it was windy at the top, it was quite captivating to watch the sun dance through the clouds across the landscape around me. Fighting the rain scattered in multiple directions of the 360° view I now enjoyed. Mesmerized by the view, I see why this place is so loved and I have to say: best view of the trip so far (drink)! And honestly, perhaps the highlight of the trip, aside from the people, of course. But one downside to the 360° view was that I could see another rain shower coming directly at me, and I decided to get it back on track and keep hauling.

Incoming rain, T-minus 15 minutes

There are no rooms in the inn.

The rest of the afternoon I only had a couple of miles left to the Roaring Fork Shelter, where I was aiming to spend the night in the shelter due to the heavy rain forecast for tonight. Arriving at the shelter a little before 6:00 pm I was quickly disappointed to see that the shelter was already full. So, I sat down, ate something, watched FarOut (my mapping app), and tried to figure out what my next steps would be. There were tent sites in the shelter, but they didn’t look that good and the point of attacking the shelter was to stay there. So if I’m not doing that, maybe it would be best to move on, if my tent and everything is going to get wet anyway, I might as well cut tomorrow’s hike to Hot Springs short. I was about to get up to do just that when Turtle walked by. I asked him if he was willing to go a couple more miles and he was, so we went to find a quiet place.

The picture doesn’t do it justice, this tree stump was huge!

Within 2 miles we identified a suitable spot right next to the trail that looked like it would drain the water away from us but wouldn’t be too exposed to the wind. So we set up our tents when it started to drizzle again. As I was getting ready for bed, I noticed that the rope holding my Crocs to the back of my backpack had broken and at some point my Crocs must have fallen out of my bag. So I guess I’m out of camp shoes… If anyone sees a pair of light blue Crocs on the AT between miles 250 and 258 NOBO, please let me know.

Statistics for the 20th:

17.8 miles

5,846′ ascent, 3,540′ descent

Pigeon River Bridge to Stealth Site

12 DSLC…

Stove use times: 4

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