Day 2, Devils Creek Gap to Piped Spring at Low Gap

I was on the trail by 9 a.m. and had plenty of time to get to Spivey Gap. It wasn't long, though, before I met some Appalachian Trail northbound thru-hikers. It was here where a pattern was set that was repeated several times during the first half of my hike.

Whenever I saw thru-hikers, I usually stopped to chat with them.

The hikers I met this morning told me they were slackpacking with help from Nature's Inn Hostel and Cabins, located near Sam's Gap. It's where they stayed last night. The mention of that place reminded me of when I tried to stay there during my 2017 thru-hike. It had been a miserable day of hiking in cold rain. By the time I got to Hogback Ridge Shelter, I was close to getting hypothermia. I called the hostel but was told it was full.

Ironically, rain began to fall harder while I talked to the thru-hikers. We split to go our separate directions.

The distance that should have taken me about 15 minutes to walk took 30 minutes because of my conversation with the thru-hikers. Polecat and his wife Kathy were there when I arrived.

They quickly gave me the food I asked them to bring. I did this so I wouldn't have to carry four days of food yesterday during my long road walk. Kathy also gave me some extra water. Now I didn't have to stop for a few hours to filter some in the rain.

Rain was coming down even harder than before when we left. I looked around Spivey Gap and tried to find where I camped six years and one month ago but didn't recognize anything. Of course, I hiked northbound on my thru-hike, and it wasn't a rainy, dreary day like today.

The rainfall wasn't always heavy, but it never stopped. Admittedly, sometimes the drops could have just been from dripping trees. It was hard to tell sometimes.

With heavy rain making the trail muddier by the minute and the regular pattern of ups and downs, I quickly realized it wasn't going to be easy to get to our intended destination, Hogback Ridge Shelter, by the end of the day. The conditions were forcing us to hike slower than we hoped.

After meeting the slackpacking thru-hikers this morning, I didn't see any more for a long stretch. Then I met a hiker who was anxious to get to Erwin. He told me he wanted to watch Minnesota play in the NCAA men’s hockey championship tomorrow night. If his team won, he said, he would take the trail name Gopher.

(I'm sure he was greatly disappointed by the game's outcome. Minnesota lost 3–2 in overtime to Quinnipiac.)

I had fallen behind Polecat after stopping to talk to the hockey fan. When I came to a viewpoint at High Rocks, I walked straight past it, though not because I was trying to catch up to Polecat. There was no reason to stop at a viewpoint on a day like this.

I knew I would catch up to Polecast at Bald Mountain Shelter. Because of the steady rain, we didn't want to stop for lunch until we got there, which we would do just before the final climb over Big Bald.

When we arrived there at 1:45 p.m., I was startled to find several thru-hikers already huddled inside. I could tell they didn't intend to walk any farther in the rain today. More hikers arrived to join them in the shelter while Polecat and I chatted with them and ate our lunch.

It may have been surprising to see so many thru-hikers not hiking because of the weather, but it was understandable. The trail wasn't enjoyable in these conditions. I can't think of a time when I stopped this early because of rain during my AT thru-hike, I would often say, "Maine isn't going to walk to me," and keep going.

On the other hand, I won't criticize these hikers for stopping today. The truth is, Polecat and I briefly considered staying overnight here ourselves. We agreed, however, that it was too early to end the day.

It was clear by now we wouldn't complete the distance we planned for today, but if we stopped at this shelter, we'd be 10 miles behind our schedule.

After checking the map on FarOut, we chose a potential campsite for tonight. It was near a piped spring just past Low Gap. According to FarOut comments, some flat spots were there for tents.

We then left the shelter, made a quick stop to collect and filter water at a nearby stream, and continued our climb up Big Bald. So far, we had completed less than six miles since leaving Spivey Gap. The top of the bald was more than a mile away.

It wasn't long before we met two more hikers. They were Jukebox and Girl Scout, plus a dog named Luna. They told us they intended to stay at the shelter, so we warned them there may be trouble squeezing in.

When I crossed the summit of Big Bald six years ago, the sky was clear with distant views in all directions. Today, there was nothing to see from the top.

This was the highest peak on the AT between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Roan High Knob, but for views, there would have been more to see today if we were walking through a green tunnel. At least there was no wind and only light rainfall.

We now had less than four miles to our proposed campsite. In good weather, we could have easily gone much farther, probably all the way to Hogback Ridge Shelter. Now, I just wanted to get the day over.

I climbed the bald in the opposite direction than I did in 2017. Going up southbound was easier today. Continuing southbound down the other side was much harder. The trail was slick with mud.

In 2017 when I went over Big Bald, I started at Sam's Gap and ended at Spivey Gap, a distance of 13.5 miles. That was a slightly short day for me, but I had gotten a late start after staying the night before in Erwin. I was delayed further when I discovered trail magic at Sam's Gap.

Our mileage today was much shorter, but nothing could be done about it .The weather conditions slowed us down much more than we wanted.

We arrived at our chosen campsite at 4:15 p.m., a less-than-ideal time to stop, but we were glad to be done. The site wasn't ideal either, with many puddles of water, tree roots, and sloping ground. It took a while to settle on where to pitch our tents.

After getting set up with my gear stowed in my tent out of the rain, I collected water from the spring. As noted in FarOut, there was a pipe, which made collecting it fast and easy. I wanted to complete all of my chores except dinner first before crawling into my tent. Once inside, I didn't plan to come out again until morning, and I would cook dinner from the vestibule of my tent.

My clothing was soaked when I was finally able to remove it and put on dry clothes. My quilt was slightly damp. Even though my phone otherwise worked normally, water must have seeped into the charging port because I couldn't get it to charge from my backup battery. This was a concerning detail, but I hoped charging would work again once it dried out. To help that to happen, I slipped it into a spare, dry sock.

After falling non-stop since this morning, rain finally ended at 6:30 p.m. but started falling again 20 minutes later. It didn't let up before I fell asleop.

I'm counting on the rain stopping by the morning. Otherwise, Polecat and I will have trouble making up for the time we lost today. We won’t try to do it all at once.

Initially, we hoped to be at Jerry Cabin Shelter by tomorrow night, roughly 21.5 miles from where we stopped tonight. The best we can hope for is making up a sizeable chunk of today's lost miles. Because I hiked this trail before, that seemed possible.

Admittedly, it's only possible if the rain stops.