We left the always classy Hiawassee Budget Inn and headed for Dick's Creek. We got a late start since the shuttles to the trailhead were full so we finally started hiking at 12:30pm. We only hiked 5 miles to Plum Orchard and called it a day. We stayed in a shelter there. It was a 3 level one that held 16 people. We were pretty cold overall that night but we survived. We shared the shelter with 16 people total, and more who camped nearby. 4 of our shelter mates were German. Two speak great English and the other two, not so much. Either way they were all super nice. It was almost dark and very cold, everyone was in their sleeping bags and all of a sudden one of the Germans who doesn't speak much English hops out of his sleeping bag to go pee. He's sleeping on the highest level of the shelter so he has to climb down a ladder. The funny part is that he's in his tiny little briefs so everyone in the shelter starts giggling and thinks he's crazy for going out there with hardly any clothes on. His friend hears everyone laughing and his response is, "Vee argh Zerhman!" (We are German) like it's normal for them to frolic about in the snow and 13 degree weather in nothing but undies. It was pretty funny to slap happy hikers. Not a huge fan of sleeping in shelters personally. It's usually crowded, noisy and most have mice in them but overall that stay wasn't bad.
Wednesday 3-27
We left Plum Orchard Shelter and had a decent hike to the North Carolina/Georgia border. Crossed into NC with many of our shelter mates from the night before hooting and hollering as each person crossed into NC. The first climb in NC was AWFUL. It was snow covered, icy, windy and STRAIGHT up. We huffed and we puffed and I thought my legs were going to fall off but we finally got to the top. By the time we reached Muskrat Creek Shelter, 7 miles from the start, I was done for. We set up our tent and laid down. We didn't feel like cooking since we had a late lunch so we ate tuna, some hickory farms cheddar cheese I brought from home and a powerbar. We called it a day after that. Pretty uneventful. We separated from Gary and Liz yesterday morning and didn't see them again that day.
Thursday 3-28
Woke up and left Muskrat Creek. It was so cold and our boots were wet from melting snow/slush/mud that they were frozen solid when we put them on. Not a great way to start the day with frozen toes. Once we got moving we finally warmed up. The last few days we've dealt with snow but today was snow and LOTS of ice. Tricky downhill descents are made more difficult when the snow and melt water refreezes at night making parts of the trail a solid sheet of ice. It was slow going this morning with lots of near falls. We climbed up Standing Indian Mountain today and stopped for lunch at the top. It was a 1,000 ft climb in about 2 miles and was pretty easy. Our guidebook says there is a view at the top, but we were disappointed because it was mainly covered in trees. We had about 5 people stop and join us for lunch. Spider was one guy's trail name, but I didn't catch the others. We kept on hiking and made it to Carter Gap Shelter and set up the tent a little before it. We did 13 miles today. I have a very sore ankle and some lovely blisters from hiking with wet feet. Tomorrow we have about 12.5 miles and then we will hitch hike into Franklin NC (10 miles off the trail). Warrior Hike has hotel rooms for us tomorrow night and Saturday night. We are going into town for Hiker Bash, a festival for thru-hikers put on by the town. We are looking forward to showers, washing our clothes and warm beds! This is our last cold night in the tent for awhile. I will also be buying new boots/trail running shoes in town....and a new rain jacket since the zippers don't work on mine. Still haven't caught up with Liz and Gary but we will see them tomorrow in Franklin I'm sure or maybe on the trail before we get to Old 64.
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