Day 16: Muskrat Shelter to Chunky Gal Trail

Hi everyone. I know some of you were concerned when I had no new posts over the weekend. I freely admit to blog negligence in this case, so apologies if I scared the hell out of anyone. I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days and it has taken me a while to regain my composure and resolve, leading to a forward decision.

So Day 16 was Saturday, March 28th. Recall that the previous evening of Day 15, we received a bit of snow at the shelter site. Overnight lows were forecast to be in the low 20s.

My morning began at about 7am with a very full bladder and a competing mindset that inside my beg was warm, and outside was not. I stayed in my bag until about 8 am when I decided I needed to get moving. I forced myself to climb out of the bag and as quickly as possible layered on every article of clothing at my disposal.

In spite of the clothes, the cold was penetrating. I’ve learned from reading and from experience that eating carbs when cold can have a warming effect. So, I ate a few handfuls of dried pineapple which is surprisingly hard when it’s below freezing! By this time, I heard voices over at the shelter. I decided to head over and have coffee and breakfast before leaving for the day.

With all necessary items for coffee and breakfast in hand, I walked over to find several people up and moving. Others were still cuddled up in their bags, but awake. They were sitting up, freezing and shivering. The whole scene wasn’t a pretty one. Everyone looked pretty miserable and this was definitely the coldest morning any of us had dealt with so far.

With a few of us sipping our hot coffee, discussion was had about how the next morning was forecast to be even worse, with lows of 13F. Unrelated to the cold, I learned of two hikers who were leaving the trail permanently that day. One was “Pops” and the other was “Jersey.”

Pops had been seriously missing his wife and simply wanted to go home. Jersey was battling some physical issues and felt he’d reached the end of his hike. Two other hikers, “Doc” and “Gray Wolf,” decided they weren’t going to let them hike out alone. Their plan was to hike out with them and stay a night or two in Franklin to wait out the cold snap then return to the trail.

When others started hearing their plan to hike off trail, a whole party started to form – wanting off the trail for a few days. Initially, I was not one of them. I had 28 miles remaining to Winding Stair Gap, which I planned to cover in 3 days. Once there on Monday afternoon, my friend and work colleague Jim was scheduled to pick me up.

However, my plan changed once I realized I could no longer feel my feet. While drinking coffee and eating breakfast, my feet got steadily colder even though the rest of my body was fine. There’s a pearl of wisdom about cold feet which says, “if your feet are cold, warm your head and/or core.” Well, I already had all my layers on: Three layers on my head, five on my torso, three over my legs and two pair of socks. There were no more layers to add.

In spite of eating, drinking a hot drink and moving around constantly, my feet went from “just cold” to “totally numb.” I’ve had cold feet before, but I have never had them go totally numb before. To be honest, it freaked me out a little.

As a mild state of panic set in, I made a quick decision that I should leave the trail with the others that were hiking out. Once in town, I would reassess my hike, my overall plan and figure out what to do. This may have been a drastic decision to make, but I was concerned about my feet. Whether it was the right decision or not didn’t matter to me at the time – I made the call and acted on it.

I told the others I would be hiking out with them. It was now about 930am, and I still had my sleep system to break down and pack my tent. Walking back to my tent on numb feet, I started packing. I had to keep talking to myself to keep calm, so I just talked myself through the various tasks… Deflate sleep pad… roll sleep pad… stuff sleeping bag… load backpack… take down tent… pack tent… strap down pack… hike.

With everything now in my pack and on my back, I hiked back to the shelter to see the group had already left! According to folks that were not bailing out, it had only been about 15 minutes since they left. I felt confident I could catch them.

This 40 mile stretch of the A.T. (from Dicks Creek Gap to Winding Stair Gap) is extremely remote and only accessible through forest service roads and a couple blue blaze side trails. The hiking party that left had already done their homework: Just under 1 mile from Muskrat Shelter, there was a side trail called the “Chunky Gal Trail” which led to US64 which led to the town of Franklin about 20 miles away.

Hot on their tails by 10am, I was on the A.T. watching for the side trail. I finally found it, in spite of not being well marked in the northbound direction. I passed a sign and had to look from the opposite side to see the side trail marked. Looking closely at the ground, I could see several fresh tracks. So the group definitely headed this way.

This side trail was anything but easy. It was not well marked and it had several steep climbs followed by steep descents. In spite of this, I finally caught up with the slower members within an hour. They initially misidentified me as Jersey, whom they said had actually MISSED the side trail and was having to double back. These folks were hanging back from the others until Jersey caught up. He finally did catch up and the four of us hiked together, with the other five well ahead of us.

This trail was crazy! According to Pops’s information, this blue blaze was about 4 miles in length. We finally reached a point where US64 was clearly visible in the valley below and we were certain we’d arrive soon. Considering a 4 mile trail, and that we’d been hiking for 3 hours, it sure felt like we were close. But like I said, this trail was crazy! Instead of going into the valley, the trail instead headed AWAY from the highway and roughly paralleled it instead.

Every time it seemed like we were on our last climb, and that the highway was near, there would be yet another climb. The one good thing during this time was that I realized feeling had returned to my feet. Other than that, it was a frustrating experience of not reaching the highway when expected. The other frustrating aspect is that, with my feet now ok, and with a beautiful sunny day, I started to feel like bailing out was the wrong decision.

This was now the third straight day of being at a low point. The continual second guessing of my bailout decision coupled with the physical challenge of this side trail was a breaking point for me. I honestly did not know what I’d do once I hit Franklin. I considered all kinds of options: abandoning my thru hike altogether, going home for a few weeks and coming back, renting a car for a car trip somewhere, driving to Alaska, driving to a different section of the trail, taking a cruise. I was very uncertain, but my immediate focus was the highway, then Franklin.

Finally at 3pm in the afternoon, we were on the final descent and could actually SEE the highway before us. The final four of us arrived to find the faster five already there. They’d only been there about 15 minutes so we weren’t that far behind. With our group of 9 weary hikers, we began the daunting task of flagging down a ride to town.

We were just beginning to discuss breaking up into smaller groups and hitching into town separately, when a large pickup truck pulled off the road. One of our group spoke with the driver. Initially he was just asking to drive to town and have a shuttle come fetch us, considering the size of our group. Instead, the driver offered to drive us, if we could all fit.

So we hoisted up nine backpacks into the bed, put three humans in the backseat of the cab, and crammed six more into the bed with the packs. With everyone secured, the driver headed off. It was about 40F out at this point. Driving 60mph in that temperature produces extreme wind chill. All of us in back had our heads tucked down to weather the chill.

We finally arrived in Franklin at about 4pm and secured rooms at the Microtel Inn & Suites. One of our group had the forethought of calling ahead and booking a block of five rooms. One by one, we claimed rooms on a pairing up basis. Normally I wouldn’t pair up like that as I prefer my privacy instead. But this whole affair was an improvised mess, so some flexibility was called for.

With everyone checked in, a few of us met up in the lobby to figure out dinner plans. There was a restaurant right across the street called FATZ known for their excellent ribs and brisket. It also had a bar, which sounded really good!

We headed over and socialized over a few beers and dinner. We met a local at the bar, Jimmy, who enjoyed hearing our hiking stories. He himself has dreams of a thru hike at some point. In total, there were 5 of us from our group at the bar. Myself, Pops, Jersey, Doc and one other guy from Maine whose name I can’t remember.

While there, we all talked about our hikes. Pops was firm in his decision to go home. Jersey was still undecided, but leant towards leaving. Then there was me. I was coming off of three mentally challenging days, frustration and uncertainty.

After talking things out, I made a bold proposition and wrote a kind of manifesto on a bar napkin. It stated, “My name is “Mojo” and my thru hike is NOT OVER.” I have saved that napkin and plan on carrying it to Maine with me – or at least for as long as it will survive the rigors of backpacking!

My immediate task was now focused on my upcoming visit with Jim. As of my last communication with him, he was planning on meeting me at Winding Stair Gap on Monday. Well, since I was now in Franklin WAY ahead of schedule, I needed to contact him to let him know. Fortunately, before dinner, I was able to call Jim’s son Danny (hiking partner from last year) and speak to Jim that way.

With Jim’s visit all squared up, I now needed to plan the particulars of how, when and where I will return to the A.T. I have my plan for that, which will be the subject of my next post…

Wandering on…

Kelly