Panch's Big Adventure : March 5th

Saturday, March 9

March 5th - Day 4

After comfortably sleeping in a bed for the first time in a few nights sofia woke me up at 6:50 to grab some breakfast Pirate had cooked up, pancakes and great coffee. I said my goodbyes to Blue Moon and Dixie because it was probably going to be the last time I saw them due to there slower pace and taking a zero today. We got our stuff together and left with a new crew consisting of my friends from GA Tech and Florida, Matt, Michael, and Ross. There was no rain at first, but it was very windy and there was a thick spooky fog over the woods. We started with a long climb that went by very quickly but didn't reward us with a pretty view, although the light rain and fog had a beauty of its own. The new group hiked well together and we made great time hiking the 11.6 mile stretch to Low Gap by 1:00. With the sky looking like it was going to pour down on us, we decided to stay there. With heavy rain setting in we were happy to see there was room in the shelter. We thought it would be easier than setting up the tent in the rain. I plopped my pad and sleeping bag in between Ross and a cool lesbian couple from New Hampshire. Some how Sofia didn't set up next to me but that's not too bad, even though I was looking forward to being able to lean closer to her instead of being very careful not to disrupt the two strangers to my left and right. Hikers were flowing in disappointed that there was no room in the shelter and with the rain coming down hard at this time they were forced to figure out a way to camp and stay dry through the night. This shelter is in a prime location with a scenic little creek flowing very close to it and the fog and rain made the day relaxing. We were invited to stay the night in Matt's family's lake house to resupply. It's going to take us two days to get there but I'm happy that I'm in a group of nice guys with whom I enjoy hiking with. A group of hikers in their mid 20s came in and kept us all very entertained with jokes and a good time. The shelter stay has been very pleasant so far and I will tell y'all more about how I slept tomorrow.