Day 3 gave us 11.3 miles and led us to a beautiful campsite at Preaching Rock. We cooked dinner on a giant rock at the top of a mountain with a great view. The sunset put us to sleep after a long day.
Blood Mountain was our biggest challenge on day 4. This was where we learned that most of the time, downhill is worse than uphill. Leaving the historic brick shelter at the top of the mountain, we encountered large and steep sheets of rock most of the way down. The reward was worth it, though... We arrived upon Mountain Crossing at Neel's Gap where we were able to resupply our food and fuel, eat a sub sandwich with a soda for lunch, and even take a shower! However, putting filthy clothes back on is a bit demoralizing. We hiked a few miles up the trail to end with an 11 mile day at Bull Gap where we had our first campfire of the trip!
10.4 miles on day 5 stopped us at our first overnight shelter, Whitley Gap. It had a beautiful creek running next to it which was perfect for cooking dinner and soaking sore feet :). Since we arrived early in the day we were able to nap for a little while before setting up for the night.
The straight and level pathway was a nice morning warm up on Day 6 allowing us to tackle 9.7 miles in 3.5 hours! We were rewarded with a little trail magic at Unicoi Gap. A women is hiking the trail with her husband following in a support RV. They were handing out sodas and good company which we were able to enjoy for a while before heading up back into the mountains. We wanted to get far in order to make it to Dick's Creek Gap early the next morning to stay at the famous Blueberry Patch Hostel. We ended up making it 20.1 miles without hardly realizing when we arrived at Sassafras Gap. Racing the sun we quickly cooked and hit the tent for bed.
Waking up early on day 7, we quickly hiked the 6.3 miles to Dick's Creek Gap with a friend we made the night before. Gary, the caretaker at the Hostel who hiked the trail in 1991, picked us up. The hostel held 10 people and we just made it in. This couple did our laundry and provided a shower for us before taking us into town to eat and resupply. We were able to hang out with some really nice people throughout the day and night. Big Al's pizza buffet hit the spot at lunch until McDonald's in the evening following by the only place open in town to get a beer at 8 PM (this was Hiawasse, GA). 8 AM breakfast consisted of pancakes with blueberry syrup, hash browns, sausage, cheese biscuits, coffee and orange juice. The 9 of us hungry hikers cleaned our plates until Gary took us back to the trail at 9:30, refreshed and refueled.
The previous night was a perfect day to spend inside as it rained almost the whole time we were in town. Day 8 was muddy, windy and cold. 11.8 miles led us over the North Carolina border (woo-hoo!) and stopped us at Muskrat Creek Shelter. Many hikers here had wet gear from the previous day and were freezing, thankfully that wasn't the case for us. Freezing temperatures and snow forced us into our sleeping bags early to warm up and get to sleep!
The sunshine woke us up today, day 9, and we had a beautiful hike through the North Carolina forests. Standing Indian Mountain brought us to our highest elevation so far, over 5000 feet! Carter Gap shelter is our home for the night where were having a fire to warm up for another chilly night!
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