Day 48 – Fever and caffeine dreams

Another really cold morning. Already in the 30s and being a cloudy morning, the sun is not warming the air as quickly today. On the other hand, I slept very well at night. About 10 hours, which were very necessary. Hopefully the rest will repair some of the damage I’ve been doing to my body, especially my right ankle. By the way, who feels a little better as of this morning? Time will tell as the miles rack up today. The plan for today is to get as far as I can, potentially to Niday Shelter, 22.5 miles down the road, which seems very optimistic, especially with an almost 9am departure. But I’d like to get to the grocery store in Catawba by the end of the day tomorrow. And that’s a 39.5 mile drive. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Cold beginnings

I started hiking today in my sun hoodie, hat, and gloves, plus my normal hiking clothes. Which turned out to be a good choice since the hike started with a 1800 foot descent over 4 miles (no climbing = no hard work = no warming up). Fortunately, the trail off of a couple of small rocky sections was in good shape and on the way down it was smooth. I know I’ve been harping on rocks and trail lately, but it makes a huge difference in the condition of my ankle, and therefore me. These miles passed quickly and before I knew it I arrived at the War Spur Shelter. Which might be one of the most interesting shelter names I’ve heard so far. Here I stopped briefly to get some water, as the next reliable source of water is another six miles away. At this lower elevation, the trees are almost completely leafless, so when the sun broke through the clouds, it remained quite cold while the trail was in the shade. This will certainly be welcome in the coming warmer days, but I could use a little more sun this morning.

Getting shade at lower elevations.

After another mile of crossing the road, I started climbing up to Kelly Knob. This started with a 1700 foot climb over about 2.5 miles, before leveling out at the top of a ridge. I continued along the ridge for about a mile before beginning a long and sometimes steep descent to Laurel Creek Shelter. This was a little tricky and technical at times, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I arrived at the shelter around 2pm, just in time to see MasterChef and Fuego come out. I dumped my stuff and walked the short walk to Laurel Creek to get water and sit down for lunch. I actually took out my stove because it had a lot of water in it, which may not be the case tonight depending on how far I go. And I had a freeze-dried meal and, since I was feeling up to it, a coffee in the afternoon. Also, I want to use some of my stove-type items since I’ll probably be shipping them home in the next couple of weeks.

Caffeine fever dream?

The next few kilometers flew by! Was the terrain quite hilly, with slight ups and downs?

Yeah!

Did I just drink a double instant coffee?

Yeah!

Has my caffeine intake/tolerance decreased from pre-trail levels that could kill a bull elk to a medically safe amount today?

Yeah!

Did the double coffee hit too hard?

Also yes!

Do I know where I’m going with this?

Not exactly!

But I do know that I moved as fast as my sore right ankle would allow. Like a 5 year old with a sugar rush after eating ice cream with children’s crack (powders).

Wooooooaahhhhh!!!!!

Monuments to the past

The next two kilometers I crossed open grassland and fenced off pastures with cows.

This was followed by a relatively steep climb moderated by switchbacks. Before going up, however, I passed a suspiciously large tree, which turned out to be the Keffer oak. The second largest oak tree on the AT and could be over 300 years old. Making America Older!

The stories this tree could tell…

After passing through there, I started going up the switchbacks. This led me to the ridge that I would spend most of the rest of the day hiking. About a mile along the ridge I started seeing these different piles of rocks. Known as Bruiser Knob Cairns, they were supposedly built by early farmers in the area.

The photographs are of some of the largest and most impressive looking, but the ridge was dotted with dozens of them over several hundred meters.

Further along the ridge it became a sort of rock scramble that moved along the rock walls at a fairly steep angle.

These would have slowed me down anyway, however, with my right ankle damaged, it took me a considerable amount of time to cover the few hundred meters that it lasted. However, they did provide some pretty nice, unobstructed views of the valley and parallel mountains.

The descent was only a couple of miles and took me off the ridge and up to Niday Shelter. This section was pretty quick and allowed me to reach camp just before dark. Quick dinner, setting up tent and bed. I am defeated…

Statistics for day 48:

22.6 miles

4,163′ ascent, 6,148′ descent

Camping at the Niday Refuge

1 DSLC…

Stove use times: 8

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