Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 30, Friday, 4/15 – I hiked the first half of the day alone. 10 miles into the hike, I came across a parking lot. From the trail I could see several hikers sitting around a canopy. That’s a sure sign that there’s some trail magic ahead. Kevin and Tammy had a set up with snacks and soft drinks. They’ve sectioned hike along the AT and love being a part of the community.

Willow had a few friends come visit (they also brought trail magic). They travelled with 2 cars so that they could hike with her. They parked one car at the lot with trail magic and the other car 8 miles up trail. The cool thing about this arrangement is that they offered to slack pack Sprite, Willow, and myself. Slack packing is when you only carry the items that you need for the day. So once we were finished with the hike, Willow’s friends drove back to the car to retrieve the rest of our items.

I’m glad I decided to slack pack, because it’s a part of AT culture that I haven’t experienced yet. It was also a spur of the moment decision; I like making spontaneous decisions that shake things up. But I’ll be honest, slack packing is out of my comfort zone. There’s less flexibility slack packing. I don’t have my tent, sleep system, stove, etc., so I have to hike to where I’ll meet back up with my items. There’s also the concern that I’ll need an item that I didn’t decide to put in my daypack.

All in all, we hiked 18 miles to Sam’s Gap, which is at mile 320. Almost everyone in our thru hiker bubble decided to stay at Natures Inn Hostel (Sunny, Blue, Willow, Willows friends, Sprite, Data, Beastie, Sole, Story Time, and Natural). It’s supposed to start raining early tomorrow morning, so i’m glad to have a warm dry bed tonight. The shower was real nice too.