NC Appalachian Trail - Sections 8-9 - Winding Stair Gap to Mooney Gap

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/12/2019	11.7 miles	6 hours 47 minutes	1,762'		507.2

Map: Appalachian Trail Conservancy North Carolina
Parking: Mooney Gap & Winding Stair Gap
Directions: Hike from Mooney Gap to Winding Stair Gap

This morning we had drizzle and cold temps. We hiked up to the summit of Albert Mountain. The last bit had some rock scrambling, but it wasn't bad despite the rocks being wet. On the top of Albert Mountain, we had some snowflakes. The mountain has a fire tower, which was marked as 100 miles (i.e. 100 miles from the start of the AT). The top of the fire tower was closed, but one of our group decided to climb up it. There was a lookout even if you didn't climb up the tower. It was mostly cloudy, but there were a few breaks in the clouds. I was sweating by the time we got to the summit. I took my gloves off at the summit for a while, and then had cold hands for the rest of the day. I didn't bring mittens, which I regretted. I just didn't think it would be this cold. I had waterproof gloves, but my fingers stayed cold. Sometime, I'm going to invest in some waterproof mittens that can go over gloves.

It was a very windy day - according to the forecast, the wind chill was in the negative digits. The day got colder as it progressed. Lots of green tunnels today. I just love them!

I managed not to fall today despite the wet leaves. The sun did come out later, but it was windy and bitter cold all day, depending on which side of the mountains we were on. We hiked on the sides of mountains a lot. It felt like there were views just 100 yards away that the trail never went to. We had one obscured view for the day - there was still some red foliage in the valley.

In the evening, we had a fun dinner at the hotel. Everyone gave their trail names, and talked about where they would like to hike. Two of us brought Slackpack IPA from the local Lazy Hiker brewery. It was good to be warm and dry indoors.