Day 10 – Plumb Orchard Gap to Deep Gap

“I’m NOT leaving my wingman!” – Maverick

Sunny, with a high near 60. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

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Up at 7:00. Ate breakfast, used privy, brushed teeth, packed up, and headed out at 8:30. Topped off water on the climb up from shelter to trail. The shelter is about .2 miles very downhill from the trail 🙁 

Our goal today is to get to Standing Indian Shelter in North Carolina.

Today is a very challenging day. Lots of big climbs plus lots of damn Pointless Ups and Downs (PUDS). It does not help that I’m carrying my heaviest load so far. Probably 32 pounds after that big resupply yesterday. I will eat a lot of that before I reach Franklin NC late Thursday.

We reached the GA/NC border at mile 78.3 at 11:30. Big milestone. It was a tough 4.8 miles today so far with 8 more miles to go. 

We topped refilled water and stopped for lunch from 11:45 to 12:45 just past the border. I was bone dry on water thanks to the hard climb. Speaking of climbs, we are staring up at our first taste of NC. A 1000 foot climb in 1.4 miles. 

There is a meme out there that goes something like this… “as the AT hikers struggle up out of Georgia and tell those GA mountains to kiss their ass, the North Carolina mountains stare down at them and say “hold my beer “”.

That first taste of NC was very very very hard. Apparently NC does not believe in switchbacks either! 

That said, there is an amazing view.

I am still trying to figure out how to do video. YouTube video from GA/NC border mountains.

We stopped for a break and took off our packs and shoes at 2:30. Much needed!

We took another break at a stream where we refilled our water around 3:30. Just past Muskrat Creek Shelter. Mike’s struggling a bit with Achilles pain. 

We took a 20-minute break (packs off) at 4:35 with 4.1 to go. One more nasty mountain to go up and over, then we trek about 1/2 way up Standing Indian Mountain to our shelter. Hope to be there by 6:45 at the latest. There are lots of recent bear issues at Standing Indian. Apparently, 3 good bear hangs had their food taken by bears in the last 72 hours. We need to be careful tonight with our bear hang. We will both have our whistles around our necks tonight. Hopefully, there will be several people at the shelter along with us.

Mike’s Achilles gave out about 4 miles from camp. He limped along very slowly and in pain. About 5:30, we were still 3 miles from camp and crawling along. I suggested we camp on the road at Deep Gap, 1 mile from Standing Indian shelter. We started considering emergency bail-out options for Mike. At 6:30, we were 1/2 a mile from Deep Gap. I went ahead fast to see if there was anybody at the gap who could take Mike into Franklin. I got to the gap at 6:45. There were 3 cars but no people…they must be overnighting on the trail. It will be getting dark and cold soon. I found a decent campsite at the gap, sheltered from wind and near water.  Mike got in about 7:00, and we decided to camp. He will likely get a shuttle out in the morning.

Got camp set up by 7:15. Zero cell service. Made dinner and a small campfire. There are bear warnings near here, and bears have been stealing properly hung bags this week. We made good bear hangs, hung our food, and went into tents about 9:15. 

Technical Notes:

• Big Sur bar –  300
• Sausages – 240
• Pepperoni – 560
• Peanut M&Ms – 250
• Fritos – 300
• Dehydrated chicken – 170
• Curry noodles – 450
• Water – 5 liters
• Miles – 13.41
• Time – 10:24
• Elevation gain – 3539
• Calories consumed – 2270
• Calories burned – 7000