Day 20: Chunky Gal Trail to Standing Indian Shelter

I’m finally back on the trail and it feels great! It’s now 1020pm and I’m snug in my bag as I write this. The shelter has five people in it and there are about 7 tents here. The temperature is about 45 to 50 degrees and we’re not expected to go below freezing tonight, yay! We do have 20% chance of rain starting at 3am though. Things are calm at the moment, although the wind is gusting up a bit. If we do get rain in the morning, my resolve will be tested!

So the shuttle picked me up at 10am, right on time! We arrived at Deep Gap at 1045am. All during the ride up the forest service road, I was SO glad I waited a day to avoid this road walk. I was walking by 11am, heading southbound towards the Chunky Gal Trail, 3 miles away.

It felt great to be in the woods again, but this part of the hike was weird! It wasn’t really part of my thru hike. It was just a thing I had to do so I could get back to where I’d left the trail. I finally made it to the trail junction at about 100pm. There was a group of trail maintainers taking a snack break. I joined them and talked with them for about 30 minutes while having my own snack break.

Finally, they headed in their way and I on mine. Even though my thru hike had now technically continued, this part of the hike felt weird too! It’s because I had already hiked this part in reverse. I was now seeing it as I should, but I’d already seen it!

I made it back to Deep Gap at 345 to take another snack break. From here, I had just under 1 mile to the next shelter. This would give me a 7 mile day, but only 4 trail miles. I probably could’ve made a longer day, but just past the shelter is a big climb to the first peak over 5000 feet. I want to tackle that in the morning when I’m fresh.

Covering the last mile, I was the third to arrive at the shelter site around 430pm. As the day went on, everyone else filed in. Some took shelter space, some pitched tents and a handful hung hammocks.

With my tent pitched, I went to the shelter to have dinner. The appetizer was a pepperoni and cheese tortilla which was excellent. The main course was Beef Stroganoff with noodles. Yummie!

After dinner, a few of us hung out around a fire. There was “Pippy” “Wayward” and “Nalgene Nipple.” We all enjoyed each other’s company making jokes and telling stories while tending the fire. I think we’re all headed to the same place 10 miles away tomorrow. We talked about heading out together, but we will see how that goes. My alarm is set for 6am, so I can theoretically make it out by 9am.

Time for sleep now.

Back on the trail, wandering on…

Kelly