When the Trail Gods smile on your thru-hike…

Here’s some photos from the Whitley Gap Shelter on the evening of March 23, 2012. There were lots of thru-hikers in the house – and the weather cleared in time for a great sunset. Best wishes Class of 2012!

BirdShooter

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A stormy start to the day. It rained all morning and into the afternoon. The forecast was for it to continue into the night – but fortunately that didn’t pan out.

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Zip and WalkAndEats at the Whitley Gap Shelter. Zip is joined by his two dogs Skye and Mojo. So I guess there really is Mojo on the trail (as I wrote in a previous article).

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KC (aka 30 Pack) watching the sun set over Cow Rock Mountain and the Appalachian Trail. He hiked this ridge line only hours earlier.

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30 Pack after the sunset – looking southwest. The storm clouds that lingered from the morning/afternoon made for some great photos this evening.

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2012 thru-hikers gathered around an evening campfire. Despite the rain today, the wood went up easily and burned well in to the night.

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Atlas leads some jams around the campfire. He earned the trail name for carrying both a guitar and a ukulele.

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Sunrise at Whitley Gap Shelter which sits 1.2 miles off the Appalachian Trail near Hogpen Gap.

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Bear bags on bear cables at Whitley Gap Shelter. Bears have been active south of here on the A.T. around Blood Mountain – but no issues last night.

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2012 thru-hikers at Whitley Gap Shelter. Only 2000 miles to go to Maine!

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Scott “Zip” Willits continues the march northward the next morning. You can follow his blog by clicking here.

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