Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 141, Thursday, 8/4 – Our campsite was visited by a gray jay at breakfast this morning. The gray jay is notorious for stealing food from campsites and is also known as “camp robber”. Birthday was eating a bagel, and the jay was getting very close to stealing it out of his hand. Genie pretended to eat some sticks, then placed the sticks in his hand. The jay, tricked into thinking the sticks were food, attempted to land on Genie’s hand. Genie dropped the sticks at the last second.

I hiked about 3 miles, up and over Middle Carter Mountain, then stopped to eat a snack with Genie. The closest water source was 0.3 miles off trail (0.6 round trip), so I decided to push on to the next source. I climbed up Mt Moriah, which was more exposed than I had hoped. It was hot and I was sweating pretty good. I tried to ration my water, but ran out about 2 miles away from the next source.

I got to the water source, which ended up being stagnant. I dunked my water bottle into the stagnant pool, treated it, then chugged it. This has to be the most thirsty that I’ve been on trail so far.

I pushed on a bit further and found a better water source. I drank more water and ate lunch with Genie and Splitzy alongside Rattle River. Lunch was a cinnamon raisin bagel with Nutella and cream cheese.

The trail continued alongside Rattle River. Within a few minutes of our lunch break, Genie and I came upon a glorious swimming hole. I’ve passed up so many good swimming holes, that I was determined to not pass up this one. We both stripped down to boxers, and got our feet into the water. The cold water dampened my enthusiasm to go swimming. Eventually, Genie built up the courage to jump in, so I followed. I can’t believe that this was my first time swimming on the AT. I’m glad I got in, the water was very refreshing.

I finished the rest of the hike solo, and made it to Trident Col Campsite (Mile 1902). I caught back up with Aqua and Birthday who were already setup. I set up my hammock and tarp, because it was forecasted to rain overnight. I then joined them for dinner before retiring to my hammock for the night.