Warm-up day 1: Rock Gap to Winding Stair and return

I'm not quite sure how to do these entries; I wrote my notes down on paper and I'm going to type them in here, but I don't know whether to put them in as separate days here or to put them all together. I guess I'll opt for separate for now.

I was already behind schedule before even starting out. Being behind in grading papers, as always, kept me from getting away on time, and then I hit nasty traffic in Atlanta, and took waaay too much type buying stuff at REI in Atlanta. By the time I finally got to my destination, The Standing Indian Basin, south of Franklin NC, it was already dark. And upon arrival, I discover that Campground where I was intending to leave the jeep for 4 days, was closed for winter, and most of the Forest Service roads were closed as well.

Well, crap.

I didn't bother to look into this stuff because I'd been here before and knew where I was going. Never even thought about the possibility of roads being closed for winter.

Sitting at closed gate in the middle of a forest at 9 pm, I opted for the easiest solution: I went to bed. I didn't feel like setting up a camp, and the jeep was right there for shelter if need be, so I just "cowboy camped, " which is a pretentious way hikers have of saying "slept out in the open." (e.g. like cowboys do in the movies). It wasn't cold (maybe 45-50 or so), especially with my down quilts, so I had no problem nodding off. Towards dawn, it started sprinkling, so I got back into the car and finished the night there.

After I got up I had to reassess my plan slightly. The trail makes a big bend at this point, so the idea was to park the jeep right in the middle, hike the loop, and then come back. (For those following along at home: look at this map, go down to extreme southern NC, and then find where it crosses Rt. 64. The area I'm talking about runs from Rt. 64 down almost to GA and then back up to Standing Indian Mountain.) This is about 25 miles of trail, and you could add maybe 10 more getting to and from the starting point.

After looking at the map I figured I'd still do as much as I could of my original plan and improvise from there, but I'd have to leave my car somewhere else and do some backtracking. I ended up parking at Rock Gap. There's a small parking area here which is just a few hundred yards from an AT shelter. I'd set up my camp next to the shelter, then spend my first day walking sans backpack, 3.5 miles north to Winding Stair Gap and then back again, and then tomorrow load up the pack and take the AT southbound.

And this I did. The trail was pretty unremarkable throughout. First days are always rough, and this was true even without a pack. Several tough uphill climbs had me panting pretty hard and dreading putting on the pack tomorrow. But I survived it, and threw in a side trip to go see the Wasilik Poplar. A really big tree, though by the time I got to it I was pretty well wiped out after a 9 mile day.

Made it back to the Rock Gap shelter and found out I'd be spending the night with The Unknown Hiker (remind me to explain Trail Names somewhere). He was sleeping inside the shelter, and I was hammocking just few yards away from it. I picked his brain for a while, as he was obviously experienced, but it wasn't until I got home and looked him up that realized out how much: dude's completed three thru-hikes.

Sadly, I didn't make as much of an impression: he referred to me on Trailjournals as a "local hiker," though I'm sure I mentioned being from FL. Feel like I just got dissed ...

As to the weather that night, I'll put that in the next entry.