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Day 2, Another Hard Morning, Another Easy Afternoon

Hawk Mountain Shelter (8.1) to Gooch Gap (17) + 8.9 miles

When I posted yesterday's story, the day hadn't actually ended yet. I was in my tent in the afternoon and had the signal to post. So I guess I'll start there. I decided to nap since I got to the shelter area early and woke up to a festival of humans. There must have been at least 8-10 tents with another few people in the shelter itself. Most stayed far away because it had a big rat problem. Anyway after a nap and dinner I saw the biggest snake I've ever seen in the wild. Must have been 5-6 feet slithering right across the trail in front of me. I called everyone over to take a look and we had a great time watching it open and close its mouth (I know it's not yawning but it looked like a yawn so let me have this one). Slept great except for the military exercises... I think I forgot to mention that earlier on Day 1 I saw 3 army rangers with enormous packs hiking an adjacent trail for training. About a minute after that I heard gunfire and was momentarily terrified. Well, turns out that wasn't the end of it. During the night we heard machine guns, artillery fire, and a low helicopter pass. Other than that I was dead to the world. I woke up early (6am) to try to rush to my destination before the predicted apocalyptic storms hit. Turns out the storms never hit fully. My early morning was rough. I couldn't eat breakfast (no appetite yet) so I took off without it and quickly hit the biggest climb yet. The sun wasn't out over the mountain, wind was blowing, and I was ice cold. Not only that but my stomach was killing me. That climb took probably 10 breaks to get to the top of. I felt horrible and I hated every step of it. Really felt like any second I'd be puking all over the trail. But I got to the top, and that was the biggest climb of the day. After about 7 miles I found a shelter on Gooch mountain and hung out for a few hours. I really wanted a roof for the storms to slam into and Gooch shelter had a brilliant tin and wood roof that looked awesome. Never seen such a nice shelter before. Anyway, after a few hours, more and more people were filing in. At around 5pm it looked like we were going to be 6 across in a shelter that's really only 12 feet wide. I met a ton of cool people and had a lot of fun but it was time to dip. One of the hikers had a Verizon phone and informed us that the storms had missed so there was nothing keeping me there. All the tent sites nearby were doubled up and there was no escape besides moving along. So me and another guy John (no trail name yet) decided to make the 1.5 mile trek to a parking lot on a gap between mountains further North. I told y'all about some bad decisions I made on my 2011 hike and let me tell you, this is the best decision I've ever made. Not only is there plenty of flat ground but there's 2 guys who have been here camping for a week. My first experience of Trail Magic did not disappoint. For those who don't know, Trail Magic is when someone does a favor for a hiker for no other reason than the goodness of their heart. Often it's food, drinks, or free shuttles. Today it was Fridge and Timber who had Pepsi and a fire and tons of good advice. You meet the most interesting people out here and Fridge and Timber are no exception. Two old mountain guys, country accents, big white beards, huge leftists and environmentalists. They gave us a couple hours of good company, and we're gonna sleep well tonight. Plan for tomorrow is to hike with John until we get cell signal and I'm gonna try to find a hostel to crash at after hiking. It's not the best thing to take a zero day on day 4, but huge storms are predicted for what would be day 4. Normally it might be worth hiking through but considering I'm scheduled to hit the biggest climb of the trip so far on day 4, I think I'll pass. If any hostel has room, it seems like I'll have a day to do laundry, charge my phone, and relax tired legs. Or maybe the storms will miss again, nobody will have a vacancy, and I'll be climbing. For once, the reader and the author both have no clue how the next post will read.