Miserable Night on the AT

[Moxie00]

We have all had bad nights while backpacking, what's yours? I think mine was exactly six years ago tonight. On day two of a thru hike I arrived at Gooch Gap. I suffer from both asthma and mild emphesima but that night I had a real bad cold and couldn't control my coughing. Two Georgia friends, SLG and Midlife, met me that night with great trail magic. Salad, beef stew, cold beer, Dr .Pepper and moon pie. They camped with me at Gooch Gap and all night listened to me cough and hack. The next morning they demanded I see a Doctor and took me to the emergency room at the Dahlonega hospital. The Doctor was from India and I could understand very little of what he said but I got chest x-rays, blood work and 100 % O2. He said I had walking pnemonia and gave me perscriptions a Z pack, another for nasel congestion and a steroid shot and discharged me. It was 20 degrees in Dahlonega, hail was starting to fall and I should have found a motel room. Instead I got a ride back to Gooch Gap and at 3:30 in the afternoon started hiking north. I hoped to find a place to camp at Woody Gap, 4 miles up the trail, but I found a cold parking lot. The outhouse was locked, a mix of steady rain mixed with hail was falling and the wind was blowing twenty to thirty miles an hour. Hoping to find a sheltered spot to set up my tent I started up Granny Top on the trail. Every place I found was open, very exposed, and not large or level enough to set up a tent. Near the summit I smelled wood smoke and by now it was dark. A local hiker by the name of Cameron had set up camp and there was a fairly sheltered spot near his tent for mine. Cameron shared his dinner with me and I set up my tent in the dark in what was now a major snow storm. My sleeping bag was rated for 20 degrees and it was now very close to zero. With most of my wet clothes on I ziped the mummy up just leaving a tiny hole to breath. It was a cold, wet, miserable night and when I woke in the morning both my water bottles had frozen solid in my tent. When I got out of my tent, snow covered the ground and Cameron was gone. I ate a cold breakfast and started hiking. Late that afternoon I got over Blood Mountain, used the phone booth at Walasi-Yi and spent a wondeful night at Goose Creek Cabins. From there it was all downhill. For the next six months I was in perfect health, never again minded the cold or the rain. Six months later I climbed Katahdin 55 pounds lighter and had a wonderful hike. It took a cold, wet, miserable night early in my hike to make me really appreciate the many that were no where near so bad later on.:sun

[Lion King]

Simply put:

Georgia
Hot
Humid
Entire body eaten up with red raw itchy welts made by those burrowing under the skin chiggers.

Horrible night.

But as always with the trail it took care of me.

I get to Dicks Creek gap literally bleeding everywhere, itching going mad, thinking I had some hybrid poison ivey or some crazy ass infection...I sit at one of the cement picnic tables and scratch and nearly cry...an old woman drives up in a station wagon, she takes a Jug over to the tiny stream to fill it with water..she looks at me and informs me I have chiggers...she tells me to hold on a minute, she returns to her car, opens the glove compartment, pulls out a ziplock bag with a gerber baby food jar filled with kerosene and cottonballs, she gives it to me and tells me to whip every bite and it will get better...she drives away.

It worked,...trail magic at its finest!

That kind of stuff doesnt happen at home.:D

[ed bell]

Moxie that is quite an experience you went through. "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" or something like that. Sickness and horry nights make for a horrible combination. They also, as you pointed out, make the good times even better. One of my long time backpacking buddies always used to say " If every trip went off without a hitch, then how the hell would you ever remember them?":sun

[Fat Man Walking]

spent on the AT. But, I am section hiker. So, the opportunity that misfortune has to find me is a very small window of time.

The closest I can come is in 2002, I think. I was early in my actual AT experiences. I can only hike in the summer, so outside of the heat and humidity, my hard times were created emotionally.

At that point in my hiking, I was hiking with my son. He was 18 or 19 at the time and going through his on "growing-up" difficulties. We started at Springer that year and were NOBO to go to Deep Gap in NC then, then were going to skip over what we had done the previous year and start again at NOC over Cheoah and the Stecoahs to Fontana.

We had gotten to Walasi-Yi ok and had a fairly good time doing it. Spent the night at the Hostel and were going to skip a planned zero day and get a jump on our schedule by leaving the next morning.

Don't know what happened that night but, the next day, my birthday of all days, nothing I said to my son that day was the right thing. We were arguing and bickering for most of the morning. Then at Testenee Gap, my son advises me he is going to leave the trail. I said OK but I couldn't. Our car was at the Deep Gap parking lot and I was going to see my hike through.

He gave me our common provisions, stuck out his thumb, and within 5 minutes, was hopping in a car and leaving. I was numb. I hiked on to the Low Gap Shelter where I had planned to spend the night. But, I don't think that I slept much worrying about him.

Funny thing, I called my wife on my cell phone to let her know to expect a call from Junior. I was able to get enough signal to make that call and when I tried a moment later to call again, I couldn't get a signal. It was freaky.

Longer story short, Junior experienced trail magic in the form of the people who gave him a ride. A hotel manager in Gainesville Ga who put him up until he could get money from friends wired to him and was able to get in touch with Mom to get a bus ticket back to Jackson.

Both he and I grew up a lot that night. While a daddy never quits worrying about their kids, I learned that I didn't have to worry as much as I used to.

Today, he is in the US Navy on a submarine. I told him to please leave the GPS coordinates to my house at the base when he goes out on patrol. I don't want a tomahawk in my lap at 4 am. :D

[KirkMcquest]

Had two bloody heels after a 21 mile section of conn. Limped ( barely), into lean-to about 9:30pm. Live and learn

[littlelaurel59]

Many years ago, at the age of 10, I took an overnight backpacking trip while at a summer camp in western NC. In those (good ol??) days, tents were the property of the well-to-do, so we had large sheets of plastic to use as tarps. A friend and I found a nice spot under some rhodo, and tied up for the night. I settled into my Coleman sleeping bag- the old type with the red cotton flannel lining with trees and deer printed on it (Comfort rating about 60*, weight 10 pounds)- for what I anticipated to be a re****l night.

During the night, a storm arose. Unfortunately, we had pitched the top of our plastic flat. This allowed quite a volume of cold mountain rainwater to collect. In the middle of the night, a tie gave way, and we were doused!!!:eek: We hastily re-tied the tarp, this time at a diagonal to the ground, and crawled back into our wet bags.:(

In the morning, I arose to discover that the rain had faded the red flannel lining onto my white underwear, rendering them a nice pink. Quite huniliating for a 10 year old boy.:o

It is amazing that I ever went backpacking again!

[kyhipo]

Had two bloody heels after a 21 mile section of conn. Limped ( barely), into lean-to about 9:30pm. Live and learncome on kirky conn is one of the easiest hikes on the trail:D use to live on a mt near kent. ky

[The Solemates]

muscrat creek shelter, NC in February 2004 on our thru it was around -10F and snow was blanketing the shelter, including our sleeping bags, and everything else. it was miserable, but certainly approaching it.

[Kerosene]

From my AT journal, Day 3 and 16.2 miles of my second section hike at the age of 16:

After breakfast, we entered a state forest. We remained in the forest for the next 14 miles. There wasn’t much of interest except some slag heaps from old mining operations. We pushed all morning to have lunch at <ST1:pClark</ST1:p’s Gap LT, the “Halfway Hilton” as it is known to thru-hikers. This lean-to had everything: a smooth, raised concrete floor, space for firewood, a huge stone fireplace with a chimney, a slate patio, a rain gutter flowing from the hill behind the fireplace that was the spring, and even a skylight! We would have loved to stay, but our schedule didn’t permit any tardiness.

While we were eating lunch, a slight rain began. It accompanied us the rest of the day. We eventually came to the small town where we were to stay for the night, but there were no accommodations to be had. We kept hiking and decided to camp on the hill north of town, by a major highway. We only had a single tent(!) that would have proven extremely cramped, so two of us decided to sleep under my plastic ground sheet. We attempted to set it up as a tarp, but this failed miserably. So, we made our way to the highway underpass and placed our bags on a shelf of one of the pillars. Unfortunately, the bridge leaked and puddles began to form on the shelves, forcing us down to level ground away from the pillar. While the bridge protected us from a hard rain, the mist managed to soak us through anyhow. To top it off, the trucks changing gears overhead kept me awake most of the night.


We woke up damp and cranky, in no mood to eat a hot breakfast. What was worse was that one of the hikers decided to forego a waterproof raincoat and rely on a windbreaker. The cold, cold rain that fell that morning soaked him to the bone, forcing him to wrap his down sleeping bag around his shoulders. Needless to say, we had to get off the trail and into town that afternoon.

[Ridge]

......... The outhouse was locked, a mix of steady rain mixed with hail was falling and the wind was blowing twenty to thirty miles an hour. Hoping to find a sheltered spot to set up my tent I started up Granny Top on the trail. Every place I found was open, very exposed, and not large or level enough to set up a tent. ........... . It was a cold, wet, miserable night and when I woke in the morning both my water bottles had frozen solid in my tent. When I got out of my tent, snow covered the ground and Cameron was gone. I ate a cold breakfast and started hiking.

I know this is kinda late but: "WELCOME TO GEORGIA" and to the start of the Appalachian Trail. I was day hiking from Hogpen Gap to Unicoi Gap in similar weather in Feburary one year, some guys at Blue Mtn shelter offered to pay me big bucks for a lift to Atlanta's Airport. I said sorry, but let them use my cell to call a cab company in Gainesville for transport, It took an upfront credit card number and a lot of my air time to get a driver to come get them and transport them to Atlanta, cost was something like $300 bucks. They didn't want to wait another day for any cheaper alternatives and got out of there. I let them sit in my vehicle at Unicoi Gap till the driver came, took forever. These guys where tired, cold and had enough of the Ga weather and the trail. Glad to hear you stuck it out and made the trip.

[wilderness bob]

A miserable night on the AT is better then a good day at the office. We've all had them though, if not just give it some time. My most miserable night? Easy, it was when I knew I was summiting Mount K the next day, the trail was over and I had to return to "the real world". If it were not for my family at home I honestly believe I would have turned around and headed south. Peace

[vipahman]

I haven't had any so far but I'm not a thru' hiker anyway. My hiking buddy had a bad experience which I would like to share.

We were section hiking from Culver's Gap to Unionville with an overnight at High Point Shelter. As darkness set in we only as far as Rt 23. It was raining heavily and I felt we should just make camp in the big lawn by the High Point S.P. office. My friend was adamant about hiking to out because he wanted a dry place. I warned him about the darkness and that there was the slim chance that the shelter might be occupied. 2 hours and 1.7 miles later we got to the general vicinity of the shelter but could not find it. Then we saw numerous tents and figured that the shelter was fully occupied. So for the next hour, we set up our solo tents in pouring rain. It was too late to eat so we just crashed for the night. It was a cold (40 degrees) and wet night. I made it through without a problem but the next day my friend was frozen stiff. Apparently his cheap Wenzel tent leaked through the fabric (not seams) and he was cold and wet. His bathtub floor was exactly that, a bathtub. His ultralight sleeping bag did not keep him warm either. He could barely move his legs in the morning. Eventually he did another 10-15 miles but he cramped up often and tore a ligament in the process. It also messed him up physically for the 4 months.

Lesson learnt.