McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 12/11/2024 | AT Mile 2161.9 | Day Total: 22.9 miles | Gain: 5135 ft

Well I’m glad to say I think this will be the last night I spent in a shelter. The whole night a chubby mouse came up to me and chewed on my pillow. It would wake me up every 15 minutes in the late hours of the night. I probably shooed it away over 30 times last night. At one point he climbed onto my quilt right underneath my hands and I catapulted it across the shelter. I heard the thud second later. To my disappointment, he survived…

The good news is the rain has stopped. I made some breakfast packed up and hit the trail. Now that the storm’s gone, it’s cooling off rapidly. It didn’t drop below 50 last night and was soon below freezing.

Had the rest of the climb up to Trey Mountain. The shelter is nearly at the top so it wasn’t too much of a climb. Water droplets are still dripping from the trees so I have my rain jacket on. It’s very foggy.

Afterword I made the 1300 foot decent to Indian Grave Gap. This was followed by a 900 foot climb up to Rocky Mountain.

Around 10 o’clock the sun was starting to burn off the fog. I was now able to see the other mountains in the distance as I made my way down to Unicoi Gap. I hadn’t realized it before, but there’s the same plaque here on a rock that’s on Springer Mountain. It reads “A footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness”.

I had one more big climb this morning up Blue Mountain. There’s no clear views at the top, but I was still able to see through all the trees with no leaves.

I decided to eat an early lunch at Blue Mountain Shelter. It was super windy along the ridge and it was below freezing at this point in the day. The shelter protected me from the wind a little bit but I was only able to stop for 15 minutes.

After lunch, I had a little bit of descent before I reached a rather flat portion of trail. It appears to be an old forest road because it’s got old stone culverts guiding watered off the mountain. This section of trail was super cruzy. The wind was blowing fiercely for the first few miles, but then it died down, which was nice. You could see the layer of frost that was actively forming on all the plants and on the mountains nearby. There was a very very light dusting of snow.

On this flatter portion of trail, I passed through many gaps including Chattahoochee Gap, Poplar Stamp Gap and Low Gap. I also had a super small climb to Sheep Rock atop which has no views.

After that nice stretch of trail I made it to Hogpen Gap. This gap was on a fairly busy road.

I had a small climb afterword and descended into Tesnatee Gap. As I walked down the mountain in the distance had a very shiny sun reflected finish on it. Almost look like a waterfall.

I had one last 700ft climb up Cowrock Mountain before I reached the campsite for tonight. At the top there were multiple viewpoints that were the best I’d had all day. The sun was also low in the sky which was super pretty!

I made it to the campsite and first grabbed some water. I pitched my tent as I watched the sunset. Very bright colors tonight!

I watched another episode of Breaking Bad while I ate dinner. I’m spoiling myself these last few days…