2018 AT – Day Two – Long Falls

Thursday, 31 May

Destination: Gooch Mountain Shelter	Today’s Miles: 12.9
Start Location: Stover Creek Shelter	Trip Miles: 24.5

Lucked out with no overnight rain but did have to deal with mice scurrying about in the night. They didn’t seem to get into anything. I left at 7:30, a little after the lady who also stayed in the shelter. This morning was all mud. Not the suck your shoe off mud but really slick stuff about an inch deep.

I made a short stop at Long Creek Falls. The sun came out for most of the afternoon. Good – it dried up the trail some. Bad – it got warmer and humid. That made a couple of climbs pretty brutal. The falls were really flowing with all the rain. I took a long, early lunch at Hawk Mountain Shelter. The dad with the daughter at Georgetown and her friend were still there. Later, I caught up to them and the family who stopped at the shelter yesterday.

I got to Gooch Mountain shelter at about four. I got my tent set up just before the thunderstorm ⚡. It really smells good in here with socks drying. A father and son, Boy Scouts, that I met waiting for a shuttle at the visitor center are here. The shelter has small crowd and the tent sites are filling in with the folks I passed earlier. The lady who stayed in the shelter last night stopped at a campsite one and a half miles before the shelter.

It will be an early evening if the rain continues. I do have an audio book to listen to, Artemis, by Andy Weir. I will try to add a couple of photos but the connection is not the best so I may have to wait for WiFi.