Springer Mountain to Woody Gap

Woody Gap - Mile 20.1 - Mar 18_th, 2017

Well the first couple days and 20 miles under my belt. It feels good to finally be on the trail making miles instead of planning! We started on the approach trail which, well, SUCKED (600 stairs) and then hiked up to Springer. We spent the night at the Springer campground and it was absolutely frigid. There were so many people camped there I felt like I was at some kind of music festie. We hiked down through thick rhodedendon forests and next to some meandering streams. Arrived at Hawk Mountain shelter pretty early and decided to call it a day. They were calling for rain and storms last night so a night in the shelter sounded better than packing out a wet tent. It was good to spend the day there and meet some of the other hikers. I drew a checkerboard on the back of my Tyvek so I've been playing other people for candy so that's been entertaining. We woke up to dense fog but the temperatures weren't too bad. Hiked in fog for most of the day and then the sky cleared up once we hit Cooper Gap. We heard about some trail magic at Gooch Gap so we pressed on. We were welcomed by beer, hot dogs, and fried chicken! First trail magic, it was pretty awesome. Thought about camping there for the night but I know me and I know I would have been hungover tomorrow because they were not leaving until all of their beer was gone (a lot of beer). We pushed and made it to Woody Gap a little loopy but happy to hike the 10 miles to the hostel in Neels Gap tomorrow. Can't wait to shower!!! The hiker stench is real. Oh and also my trail name is Ginkgo, because apparently the way my hair looked piled onto my head looked like a ginkgo bulb. A great start!! Looking forward to the climb on Blood Mountain tomorrow .......