AT Day 3

I wake up to the sound of others moving around and slip out of bed, trying not to wake everyone else up.
This morning, I truly learned to appreciate the joy of a full breakfast-french toast, hashbrowns, eggs. (this was probably the most calories I ate in one sitting until i reached Hiawassee, GA). Since there were so many people going so many places, I had to wait awhile until they were ready to drive myself and an older woman who had been averaging 5 miles a day back to Woody Gap. My goal was to reach Neel's gap and stay at the Walasi-Yi center-the only place where the trail passes under a roof and the first outfitter on trail. I started off walking with the older woman-Nancy but soon pulled ahead, enjoying the walk. As Josh & Leigh of the hiker hostel had said, the first part of the 10 miles was relatively easy-no super challenging ups or downs.

I was slowly going along when an older man catches up with me. His name is Big Sky and he's a thru-hiker! And he actually looks legit. Woo!! I didn't mind that he was older or that he seemed odd. He was legit and I hadn't met someone actually hiking who seemed to have the determination to thru-hike. He hiked behind me for a bit until I pulled off to the side to eat a snack and rest my legs. On an uphill (worst place I could do it, but I was slowing down badly and I didn't want to hold him back). I kept going, passing the shelter before blood mountain. It started to get more snowy/icy and I passed the blue blaze around blood mountain, thinking that i would be fine. Not so much. I met a couple of day hikers, chatted with them, consulted my map and looked at the looming up. It looked icy and I knew the other side of Blood Mtn was practically straight down and likely to be just as icy. I wasn't going to tempt fate, not this early in the trip.

I turned around, following the voices of the day hikers. And it became clear after a bit that they were talking with someone else-who made his way around them, bumping into me (at this point, I'd caught up). I said i was a thru-hiker-Emily, no trail name yet. He said he was Silver, caught himself and said Steven. I wondered why-I didn't need to know his real name. He already had a trail name and I didn't need to know his real name. He turned around as well, when I'd said the slope up blood mtn looked rather slick and icy.

We chatted for a while, but then he kept pulling ahead. I didn't care, perfectly fine at being slower. Eventually, I reached the Walasi-Yi center, chatted with an older couple who were finishing up a day hike before wandering inside. The place was... overwhelming to say the least. Crowded with old boots hanging from everywhere, clif bars and snacks crammed next to books, magazines and swiss army knives-not necessarily true, but it illustrates the idea. Backpacks crammed in next to each other all on a wall, tents on the wall next to it, little bits of gear in another nook. I took the opportunity to get a 'shake-down' of my gear. Turned out I didn't need it after all (but looking back, I really should have gotten a new backpack). I ended up spending most of the afternoon sitting there to be told I had a good amount of stuff in my backpack at an acceptably light weight. woo.hoo. Missed getting a pizza so I ate a trail meal instead. I stayed in the hostel with a bunch of other would-be thru-hikers: Isabelle and Natalie (who would become Fro & Bou after Fromagerie and boucherie/boulangerie), Count (whose real name I can't remember & his two friends.. whose names I can't remember for reasons that will become quite clear in the next few posts), and Myaaka.