Appalachian Trail (day 6) - Betty Creek Gap to Licklog Gap / mile 122

Crazy day, had some of the best and some of the worst AT can provide.

First thing in the morning there was a climb to Albert Mountain fire tower with some great views of the area, trail was very good and I've met a lot of day hikers along the way.
Around midday I arrived at Winding Stair Gap, where a large trail magic was set up by Rick and his friends from Hiawassee area, I was one of the last hikers they were hosting that day (weather was turning bad) so not only I've got a burger and a drink, but a takeaway of more beef patties, cookies, apples and cheese slices - it was absolutely amazing and I could not be more grateful to these nice people, it was my first trail magic on AT as well.

Trail was going uphill for few hours from that point, around 2 pm it started hailing and eventually raining, it lasted for an hour. I've seen many tents scattered along the trail in anticipation of it, but it wasn't really that bad and it was quite early, people must have been really tired.
At 5 pm I arrived at the second fire tower of the day called John B. Byrne Memorial Tower, trail was going downhill from here so I thought it was a good idea to carry on. I met hiker called Chattahoochee on my way down, he thru hiked AT in 2023, he offered me some candy which I accepted. At this point it started to rain again, the thunders were also pounding in the distance, but I decided to push on for another hour.

When I arrived at my designated campsite it was raining heavily and the storm was getting closer. Few minutes after I've managed to put my tent up the hell broke loose, the storm went right over the campsite and nearly swept my tent away, luckily I managed to secure it with additional lines from the side the wind was blowing.

I decided to skip cooking anything and just wrapped the beef patties in tortillas and ate them, they were delicious. After an hour thunderstorm moved on, so I went out and hanged my food from a tree to protect it from bears. Apparently we had a round two of the storm coming after midnight, I guess I should have some sleep till then.

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