Day 86 Hiking the Appalachian Trail in 100 Days | AT Thru Hike SOBO 2024 Snowman

good morning day 86 of hiking the Appalachian Trail in 100 days I almost lost another item this morning I had my socks hanging up um on some nails at the shelter to dry overnight and I started hiking got a few minutes down the trail and was thinking man this fresh pair of socks I have on feels nice and then I was like oh shoot I forgot the socks of the shelter so it was less than a/4 mile back to the shelter I think it was more like an eighth of a mile so wasn't too bad I just dropped my pack there and walked back and got the socks and also when I was walking back I passed this guy was hiking and he said well first of all he said he saw a bear like 300 yard before he got to the shelter and then also he said he was hiking out to check on his deer stand and I don't really know what you need to check on maybe just like make sure it's still there and still in good condition ready to go for the fall but thought that was interesting he said hiking on the at is the fastest way to get there but nice morning so far the sun's out had a little steep section already for just about half a mile wasn't too long and now we're just going to be going gradually up for the next few miles nice little view here down into some flat land below and currently going over the top of big butt not sure why it's called that but I'm just telling you guys the name of this mountain so hasn't been too bad of a climb been pretty gradual over the last few miles and after that we'll have a little bit of down and hopefully some more views a little bit later on walking along a little Ridge here just below 4,500 ft and some nice views and some rocky art terrain but nothing we haven't dealt with before looks like another little view right up here it's about 10:00 a.m. now so oh you can see a little bit over the top there got uh just about 2ish hours to the little Laurel shelter where I'm planning to stop for my midday break and then it'll be a little bit less than 9 miles from there to camp for the night pretty neat view over this side kind of a pretty flat area down below there and uh still some nice views of the mountains on this side so it's about 12:30 right now and I just stopped at the little Laurel shelter just a few minutes before 12:00 for a little lunch break and unfortunately there wasn't any water there so couldn't fill up but I still have close to a liter left and uh pretty nice Trail here going down about a 4 and a half more miles to Allen Gap and then after that I have under 4 miles to the shelter for the night but there's a lot of climbing in there in those four miles and I think some of it's pretty steep so I should probably fill up on water before I get to the shelter but I don't know if I will there's a I think there's a creek at Allen Gap that's like A4 mile off the trail and I don't really want to stop there just cuz I'm lazy I guess but I definitely should cuz I still have more than 3 hours or about 3 hours probably a little more than 3 hours till I get to camp and only one liter of water or less than a liter over that time is not ideal so I'll still get to Camp plenty early so I'll probably make myself stop and fill up on water at that point but the miles have been going well today um the only difficult section or tricky section per se so far has been going over that Ridge with those rocks and Views and it wasn't hard in the sense that it was super strenuous it was just like tricky rocks that made me slower and uh had to pay closer attention so hasn't been too bad like I said but I think there'll be some tough climbing the last few miles of the day it's about 2:15 now and still about half mile to go till I get to Allen Gap I did stop though little bit less than half an hour ago well I stopped more than half an hour ago around 1:30 and I stopped at the southern cookie lady's house which which I didn't know existed but I saw a sign and it didn't say how far away it was but there was a house looked pretty close by so I went over there and sure enough that was the southern cookie lady so I filled up some water there which was awesome she had water and it was a husband and wife and got some cookies and talked to them for a little bit so that was an awesome experience didn't know there was a southern Cookie Lady I think she's newer they actually used to live for most of their lives in Northeast Ohio less than 45 minutes from where I grew up and uh they just moved down here in the last 3 years or so and uh their house is literally a tenth of a mile off the trail so pretty cool thing she's starting up has the southern Cookie Lady and definitely enjoyed talking to them and enjoying some cookies heading up the last few miles out of Allen Gap to the campsite and only a mile and a half after stopping at the southern Cookie Lady when I got to the road at Allen Gap I Came Upon the trail angel Emoji again and she yelled out and I walked over to her car and hung out for a little bit again and got some more food and drink from her so really enjoyed that and good to see her and talk to her again she is a super nice person so some more delays this afternoon but that's totally fine should still make it to Camp before 4:30 which is still plenty early enough it's about 3:15 now and I have less than 3 miles to go and uh I've already climbed somewhere between 500 and 1,000 ft so have uh think I have a little bit more than 1,000 ft left to go in a nice little flatter section here but going to have some steep again so I'm at the Spring Mountain shelter here and just cooked up my dinner and ate that and moving on kind of to dessert now and I wanted to show the uh ice cream sandwich that my uncle bought and sent a few of so uh it's basically just a freeze-dried ice cream sandwich it's like uh crunchy and uh tastes pretty decent and then got these uh brownie bites here which are just little uh little like Pebble type things that are kind of crunchy so those are pretty good as well so yeah I'm going to eat some of these goodies and then get all my food packed up and head down the trail just a little bit there should be some bar cables I can hang my food on in the tent for the night and it has been definitely hotter today so it is a little hot or warm still in the tent but uh it's kind of buggy out at least at this shelter there's a lot of flies going around and some mosquitoes as well so figured I'd rather be in the tent even if I'm a little warm than out there in the bugs it's definitely cooling down some so I'm sure in a little bit more it won't be uh too warm at all but did 22.6 Miles today and I'm at the Spring Mountain shelter which is at mile 1, 191.000 mile mark today and uh less than 300 miles to go till I reach Springer Mountain and in terms of history from 1911 there's nothing really notable I can think of I feel like there is something that happened that I should know about but can't really think of anything um I do know that William Howard Taft was the president at the time who was the 27th president but uh aside from that I can't really think of much else was the only president to also serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court I believe he held that role after uh his presidency and um there's a rumor or Legend at least which I'm pretty sure is true as well that he got stuck in the bathtub at the White House and had to call the firefighters or somehow get the firefighters to come to get him out so not sure if some of that or all of that is true I I believe it is but but uh that's another interesting fact as well he was definitely more of a round person so solid day today um shorter day tomorrow I'm going to do 11 miles into hot springs and then uh meet up with some relatives and uh then I'm just going to have a few miles I think three or four miles after uh Hot Springs to the place I'm camping tomorrow night so I think it's less than 15 miles total for the day