Barely is the operative word. I made it down to the marina at 7:00 like I was estimating but when I got there everything was closed. The signs indicated that the lodge would not accept hikers but I was determined to get a room so I made the two mile trek up Highway 28 in dwindling light and at the end of exhaustion. I made it about 8:00 p.m. and was able to get a room so all is well for now.

Most of the night camped out in the hammock was cool and breezy. The tarp to the hammock sags when you sit in it and the breeze was enough to make it flap all night long and for the first 30 minutes I kept thinking it was a bear stealing my food. Four or five times I stuck my flashlight out of the hammock, pointed at the bear bag, and every single time everything was fine. It took me a while to realize that it was just the tarp flapping in a particular way that made it sound like the bear bag.

I woke up about 6:00 and was able to get hiking at about a quarter till 7:00. It was dark enough that I needed to use my headlamp to illuminate the rocks that were hiding under the overgrowth of brush. I only needed to use the light for about 10 or 15 minutes though.

The way the mountains were arranged and the way I was climbing I actually got two sunrises this morning. They were not epic California sunrises but they were good nonetheless. The next mountain after my campsite, which was less than a mile away, there were two different groups of people camped on top. It was barely after 7:30 and they were already awake which is unusual for weekend campers even though this is in the middle of the week. They had a cool and breezy night as well.

Most of the day was pretty uneventful. The hiking was mainly ridge walking which means they take you up and down every little peak whether there’s a view or not. Some of them were pretty overgrown with rhododendron and it was pretty rocky. The combination of the two slows you down quite a bit. I did get some good views on a few of them though and it was a little bit cloudy but also sunny later in the day. The temperature was perfect for hiking.

I used the second shirt which was clean at the time because the first one was so smelly I just wanted a change. It stayed pretty fresh until 1:00 or 2:00 when it also was pretty saturated but being a thinner shirt it doesn’t retain as much sweat as the first shirt that I was wearing. I’m glad I bought the extra shirt in Wesser and may end up ditching the first shirt completely.

All of my stops were brief because I knew I wanted to still have the option to make Fontana tonight rather than tomorrow night. I was able to find picnic tables and trash cans to have lunch at 11:00 so that was a nice break. There was another weekend hiker there who was feeling some pain so he was trying to get a shuttle to take him back to Fontana.

I was snacking most of the afternoon and mixing energy drinks to try to keep my speed up. It worked pretty well. I had good energy most of the day even when I was tired. There were lots of ups and downs but the last three miles into Fontana was mostly down. It was a little bit rocky and had a few steps but nothing too bad so I guess it was about average.

I made it to the marina at 7:00 and started reading the signage that said you could get a shuttle from the marina but the marina closed at 4:00. It also said everything was shut down and they couldn’t offer rooms for hikers which I knew not to be the case because their website said they had reopened August 17th. So I was getting mixed signals and getting a little nervous but I was pretty sure if I walked up the road to the village that I would be able to get a room. What made it worse is there is no cell service and even though they offer Wi-Fi at the marina they don’t publish what the Wi-Fi password is so that was useless. I just had to trust my gut and hoof it up to the village before it got too dark.

Highway 28 is a twisty road in about 2 mi to Fontana village. I remember driving it many times in the Spider and I never once thought that I would want to walk it. But, well, good I did. The first half of the Walk was mostly downhill and still had enough light that I didn’t need to use my headlamp to signal oncoming traffic. But the second half it was dark enough that I did need to use my headlamp to let drivers know that I was there. I only saw four cars and five motorcycles the whole way so it’s not like there was a lot of traffic. If this was not a COVID effect, I would have easily seen a hundred cars.

it was completely dark by the time I got to Fontana village so I had to use my headlamp to illuminate the street signs to find the one that I knew went up to the lodge.despite them advertising their reopening it looks like they’re still struggling for business as they were only about five cars at the lodge. Normally there would be 70 to 100 cars.

I was able to check in with no problems. I went ahead and booked two nights since I’m so exhausted and I’m still expecting tomorrow to be pretty rainy. The long road walk was easily three miles worth including walking around the village and my feet are sore. I was checking in at 10 after 8:00 and she told me that the only open restaurant was down the hill and closed at 9:00. So I only had time to give a really quick sponge bath put on a clean shirt and hustle down to the restaurant before they closed. I got a cheeseburger with french fries and a side salad and it was quite delicious.

Tomorrow I will have to pick up my resupply and repack everything for the next 6 days through the Smokies. I will also have to do laundry tomorrow and other miscellaneous items. I think booking the room for two days was a good idea because on the way back from the restaurant it started to rain on me. Even though tomorrow will technically be zero miles I still bet I will get 15,000 steps in just doing chores around town. I need to be ready for the Smokies since it will be 6 days without any kind of resupply or civilization. The weather forecast for the rest of the week after tomorrow looks great so I’m hoping to have a nice trip to the Smokies. And I’m thankful for a soft bed tonight.

That about sums up the entire day. For this entire trip I’ve been looking forward to having Sherpa rice at the NOC…and I bust my ass to get there for lunch and they closed about 30 minutes before I arrived. They will be closed until tomorrow afternoon. And what was worse was that it wasn’t just the main restaurant that was closed but all of them were closed because they were having some sort of employee meeting. Ice cream and soda from the general store don’t make up for the loss.

I slept in about an extra hour since I disturbed the gentleman I was camping with at the shelter the night before by coming in late. But I made good time packing up and leaving still a little bit before sunrise, although it was hard to tell because there were so many clouds.

I was basically hopping from shelter to shelter stopping for brief periods to drink or snack. The entire strategy of the day was to make the town of Wesser for lunch. The descent was steeper than I had expected so it took me a little bit longer. I was hoping to get there before 2:00 but I got there about 2:30.

I set my pack on the stone wall, took off my shoes and socks and set them in the sun to dry, and then walked down to the river to wash my feet. It took me just a few minutes to buy an extra pair of socks, actually two pairs and an extra shirt since the one I have been wearing is really starting to stink.

I got over to the restaurant about 2:45 and noticed they had a sign on the door that said the restaurant would be closing at 2 and would not reopen until 11:00 the next day. My heart sank. I walked over to the general store and asked which restaurants were open and they told me that none of them were open – they were all closed at the same time. Now my soul has been crushed.

I bought a soda, a beef stick, and an ice cream bar to eat instead of my lunch and bought some M&M’s and another beef stick for hiking out of town. They wanted $100 for a room and after not being able to eat there’s no way I was going to spend $100 on a sleezy room.

So I got out the map, figured out how far it was and what time I would need to leave to hit the shelter. It was 7 miles away and if I left before 4:00 I could probably get there just before dark. So that’s what I did – I left at 4:00.

The climb out of Wesser was not steep but it was very long, nearly all seven miles was up. It was over 5,000 ft of climbing. That’s normally the amount of climbing I do in an entire day, not just an afternoon beginning at 4:00. I tried to make frequent stops to eat and drink to keep my energy up and not waste time and keep climbing. When I was about 2 miles away it was evident that I would get there literally just before dark about a quarter to 8:00.

And my timing was perfect because I did arrive at just about a quarter to 8:00. There were three or four hikers already asleep there and I asked one of them if there were bear cables. He said “no” so there was no point in staying there. I decided to go back to the trail when I saw a good campsite and pitched a hammock and probably got a better night of sleep.

So now I am 21 miles away from Fontana and not sure if I should try to push to get there just before dark or go easy and slide in tomorrow morning. I will probably get an early start, at least leave the first option open and then see how the weather plays out tomorrow. All services in Fontana are supposed to be open but their communications line has been cut so their telephones are down and I can’t call to verify until I get there. Heck I may not even be able to verify it after I get there. I may just have to hitch the 2 mi up to the village from the marina. But that’s a story for another day.

Taking a day off in Franklin ended up being a good call.  The feet are still not in great shape but in the afternoon they started to warm up a bit and make the hiking easier.  Moderate terrain also helped.

I had to wait a little bit for the hostel owner to get rolling, but got off at a decent time.  We stopped by Burger King for some chicken biscuit sandwiches.  One for the car and one for the trail.  The hostel owner was really fun to talk with but it was time to head north again.

I got up trail about 9 am.  It was a cool morning with a gentle breeze and no rain.  The sun was out but the trees kept it filtered.

Within an hour or two I was at Silers Bald, the spot where Karen and I came a few years ago to watch the total solar eclipse.  The place looked the same except the brush had grown up a bit.  I had dry shoes and the weeds looked wet so I did not bother to hike up to the top.

I kept going and stopped for lunch before getting to Wayah Bald.  A quick tuna wrap and some chips.

It took another hour to get to the watch tower but it was a great time to be there.  The visibility was at least thirty miles but clouds were rolling in.  Over the town of Andrews I could see a huge sheet of rain coming.  I had a quick snack and headed on down the trail because I knew that rain was coming for me.

Sure enough about thirty minutes before getting to the shelter it started to rain but not badly.  But by the time I got to the shelter it was coming down hard for over thirty minutes.  About the time it ended, Senor showed up.  He is a thru hiker that shuttled out with me but had to start 3 miles further than where I started.  He is doing about 15 miles in the same amount of time that I am doing 12.  I am not going my full speed yet because of my feet and the terrain today was made for flying.

Senor was totally drenched and decided to stay at that shelter, but it was barely 5 pm and the next shelter was only five more miles.  I decided it was worth it to keep going and get closer to Wesser so I could resupply and leave and not get stuck in another town for a night.  Senor is getting off there to go to a wedding so I won’t see him again until north of the Smokies.

I knew if I left then that my feet would get wet from the vegetation but the same thing would happen in the morning anyway.  So I set off for Cold Spring shelter hoping to arrive with about an hour of daylight and did.  There was a gentleman already there about to go to sleep when I arrived.  I asked if he knew where the bear cables were and he did not know.  I asked where he was storing his food and he said in the corner of the shelter.  That’s no good.  I offered to hang his food with mine and set off to hang the bear rope before it got dark.

I made dinner of spaghetti and pepperoni and tried to eat quietly as he had already fallen asleep and started snoring.  I cleaned quietly and hung the bear bag.  Even setting my gear out did not disturb his sleep and those compactor bags make a lot of noise.
This guy is planning on going through the Smokies, and if he is, he had better get a little bit more bear training.  I hope to be miles ahead of him at all times.

The feet are still super tender, so I decided to spend the night at the hostel again.  I wore my shoes and walked a mile and a half to the only diner open in town on Sunday.  It was an opportunity to try to get some heat into the shoes to dry them out.

Unfortunately, the shoes did not dry.  I stuffed them with newspaper and put them on the air conditioning vent and that helped a little, but they are still wet. I was not able to get any more socks, so I’ll have to venture into the rain tomorrow with my two pairs and pray for some sunshine.  But the forecast looks awful for most of the upcoming week.

But I was able to resupply, so now I have all the food I need to get to Wesser and beyond.

The evening was dominated by fog, the morning and nearly all of the day consumed with rain.  I’ve been soaking wet for about 24 hours.  The forecast is for five more days of rain.

Last night was a miserable night camped high on Standing Indian Mountain.  The site I found was good; I was able to hang a bear bag, and it was breezy.  The problem was that I was in the clouds most of the night.  And clouds mean water… an endless supply of it.

Just after dark, the fog started to roll in and it got ice cold.  I had to get into my bag quickly.  But I soon noticed that the fog was descending on the netting of the hammock and it started dripping down on me. Between the fog blasting the left side of the hammock and wetting everything on that side and the netting dripping down on me, I was soaking wet in no time flat.  After about an hour of that, the coolness turned warm.

It took me several hours to even fall asleep and then it was damp, hot, and sticky.  I probably slept maybe four hours all night.  I woke up at 6:15 and got rolling by 7:00.  I really had my sights set on hitting Franklin now just to dry out.

It wasn’t 15 minutes into the day before the fog turned to rain.  It was light at first, but within 30 minutes my feet were soaking wet.  The entire day was a cycle of thirty minutes of rain followed by an hour of fog.  Nothing dried out.  Especially my feet.

I was basically hopping from shelter to shelter all day to have dry space to make something to eat.  I did not have the time to actually cook so it was all cold food.  I had very little walking snacks left.  Tuna packed in oil with mayo on a tortilla was the highlight.  Oreos and peanut M&Ms rounded out the rest of the day.

By three o’clock my feet were pruned and killing me.  I had no dry socks and even changing socks would last three minutes tops.  It was to be a day of miserable feet for the rest of the day.

At a shelter about six miles out, I found the business card for a local hostel in Franklin and took down the number. When I got to the first peak where I had a signal, I called and made a reservation.  It would be my first day over 20 miles and only possible due to the rain.  Hiking in the rain keeps you cool so you need less water and want to stop less.  But it kills your feet.

I made arrangements to be picked up at the trailhead at 7 pm.  That would give me 15 minutes to spare.  The last 3.5 miles were the hardest of the day because of my feet, but the actual hardest part of the day was going up Albert Mountain.  It’s only a short 0.3 miles but it’s a huge vertical climb and it started raining just after I began my ascent.

I met two brothers earlier in the day and we bounced from shelter to shelter hiding from the rain.  They were parked at the Gap where I was being picked up, so we chatted some more while I waited for the shuttle to arrive.

The hostel is a welcome break from the rain.  I am showered, my clothes are drying, my gear is laid out to dry, and there is a pizza in my belly.  Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Today I hit the milestone of leaving Georgia behind and entering North Carolina. I took a quick picture of the real border but went another few tenths of a mile to the accepted border that has a very twisted tree which is very recognizable. The tree still pretty much looks the same as it did 30 years ago but it looks like it’s a little closer to the ground now. One thing that does look very different is the area around it has grown up with trees where I remember it being an open field.

I was able to get up and get going before 7:00 and the clouds kept sunrise from happening even later than it seems like it should have. It didn’t take too long for the clouds to separate in the sun to start peeking out. I was expecting rain on and off all day long but it didn’t rain once.

I got to Bly Gap a little bit after noon so I stopped and stocked up on water and then had lunch. I had one deli tuna pack that I picked up at Mountain Crossings so I made a tuna wrap.

I kept running into another hiker on and off all morning who was out for about a week at a time with his wife meeting him at the major intersections. Normally this is called slack packing and you don’t carry a full pack since you don’t need to camp and you only need one day’s worth of food. But this guy looked like he was carrying a full pack. He was keeping up a very good pace though and would have enjoyed hiking with him except for he was carrying a radio playing music the entire time and wouldn’t turn it off.

Later in the day I stopped at Muskrat Creek shelter to make coffee and a family with four boys came rolling up to set up camp. The youngest one looked to be about 5 years old and this shelter is 5 miles from the nearest road. It looked like the little one was having trouble with the hiking. I hope they’re able to have a nice time. It seems like a bit of a large endeavor for such a young child.

The rest of the day went pretty much as planned. I started hiking up Standing Indian Mountain knowing that I would go at least to the top and camp somewhere afterward. When I got to the top it had several campers up top so I didn’t bother to go to the summit. I just kept walking down the other side of the mountain knowing that in less than a mile there was a flat spot that should probably have camping. About halfway there I found a camping site a few hundred feet higher than I intended but it looked good so I stopped and made camp.

I tried the other expensive dehydrated dinner that I bought at Mountain Crossings. I followed the directions which were quite vague and let it sit the appropriate amount of time to rehydrate but when I went to eat it many of the noodles were still crunchy. It tasted good but the texture was off putting so I doubt I will buy any more of these in the future. But it definitely tasted better than mashed potatoes so maybe I will.

As I lay in the hammock writing this blog I am realizing how different tonight is than last night. Last night was hot and muggy and miserable but tonight I’m very high up. There’s a strong breeze and it’s very, very cold. Normally I would like this just fine but fog is rolling in with the wind and everything is getting damp. I hope tomorrow that I don’t regret camping so high tonight.

Looking at the maps it’s 50 miles to Wesser. I only have enough food for 2 days (maybe 2 1/2) so it will be a stretch to try and reach there without resupply. The road to Franklin is 22 miles which is also a little too long to make in one day. So I will probably try to go ahead and make it all the way to Wesser but that will be dependent on the weather. Also depends on how long I can tolerate my own stench.

Today I finally got real rain for the first time. I wasn’t expecting the rain to start until tomorrow but it went ahead and started today.

I didn’t sleep that well in the shelter last night. I tossed and turned quite a bit. I didn’t think I was sleeping but the time was passing faster than my brain is telling me, so I must have been sleeping. I woke up 45 minutes later than I wanted to but since I was sleeping in a shelter I was able to pack up and leave about 15 minutes faster than normal. I didn’t leave the shelter till after 7:30.

The morning went by quickly. The temperature was nice and cool. There was a little bit of fog and clouds so everything got a little damp. I was able to make it to Tray Mountain shelter for lunch about 12:45. I passed the caretaker on the way to the shelter. He was clearing the brush by the side of a trail with hand hedge clippers. I stopped and chatted with him for about 5 minutes. He was mentioning that in the peak hiker season a lot of betrayal shuttles were closing down because of COVID. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want a stranger from who knows where in my car for 30 minutes driving into town especially if they stink like a hiker.

I finished my lunch and moved on in about 30 minutes. After I left the shelter it began raining. It wasn’t a very hard rain but I did get my umbrella out and use it for about 15 minutes. Dwayne finally stopped and not very much got wet. The pack was a little damp. My feet were a tiny bit damp but not soaking wet. About an hour later it rained the same way again for about 10 or 15 minutes but this time I didn’t bother to use the umbrella.

At about 5:00 it finally did rain and it rained hard. It rained for over 45 minutes and it rained so hard that everything got soaking wet. The trail was a river and I had to step right through it. In less than 5 minutes my shoes were sloshing wet.

My coffee kept me fueled but I needed a little extra kick so I made an energy drink as well at about 6:00 after the rain stopped. I had to keep my pace up to get to the spot where I wanted to camp before dark. I was cutting it very close. I found a ridgeline that had some big trees that I could hang from. It was just before 8:00 when I got there and it was a little bit darker than I really wanted. I had to use the light to set up the hammock and cook my food.

Now that I’m finally in the hammock I’m still a bit miserable because there’s zero breeze at all and it is very very hot. I cleaned myself as best I could before I got in the hammock but I’m still so sticky and clammy from all the sweating today. It’s not very comfortable laying here with no breeze. I’m just hoping that one picks up soon so I can cool off and go to bed. I haven’t figured out how far I want to go tomorrow but I guess I’ve got to figure that out now.

Today was the day I had to climb Tesnatee Gap. It was one of the memorable climbs in ’89 for being really steep out of nowhere, and it was exactly as I remembered it, but maybe not as long. Even the road that went up to the Gap was really steep. That should be a warning that the trail is also going to be just as steep.

I got a decent start in the morning. I woke up about 6:15, was out hiking by 7:00, and was easily hiking for 30 minutes before the sunrise. It wasn’t too cold. There was a nice cool breeze and a little bit of cloud cover made sunrise take a little bit longer than I expected.

The day as a whole was pretty uneventful. There was some climbing; there was some descending; there was quite a bit of level hiking that I didn’t expect, so that was a bonus in the middle of the day. But the end of the day had a really rocky and treacherous stretch about a mile before the shelter where I was going to stop to see if I wanted to camp there. I slipped on a rock and fell and banged my knee a little bit but nothing too bad, just a little bruise.
A mile before the shelter there was a spring, so I stopped there and filled up and washed off my legs, took a quick little bath, and then headed up to the shelter. There was a couple up there who saw a bear about an hour ago, so I decided I better go ahead and stop here and use the bare cables instead of risking not finding a tree to be able to hang my bare bag.

I tried the Peak dehydrated dinner that I bought at Mountain Crossings and it was pretty good. I was surprised that it only took one cup of water. I didn’t get my water boiling the first time so I had to restart the stove to get it hotter. After letting it set 10 minutes to rehydrate I stirred it and it was not very hot and a few pieces were a little crunchy so I stirred it and let it set another 5 minutes. A few of the whole beans were still not fully rehydrated but it was good anyway. It was a sweet pork dinner and the sweetness had a bit of spiciness to it as well. It reminded me of a Thai Sweet Pork dish. At $14 a meal I doubt I’ll buy any more but if I could get them at a cheaper price I would definitely eat them again. They were very high quality.

I haven’t looked yet to see where I want to try to end up tomorrow. Today’s 18 miles was a decent distance to go. I wanted to go a few more but the bear being here and the trail only leading to Unicoi Gap would have made it a really long night so I decided I would cut today a little short and I’ll see if I can add a few miles tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy with a small chance of rain but by Friday it’s supposed to start raining and rain for three straight days and nights. I need to make sure I’m in good shape and in good health before I try to push through rainy days.

Today was the first day that I actually remembered something and had it turned out the same way as I remembered it. One of the most memorable aspects of my 1989 hike was getting hypoglycemia hiking up Blood Mountain and having to run down the mountain in the rain to make it to the hostel before they closed. As it would turn out I arrived at Blood Mountain at the same exact time as I did then, left Blood Mountain at the exact same time as I did then, and arrived at Neil’s Gap at the exact same time as I did then.

I purposely got up a little bit later than normal again today to not push too hard. Since I had camped at the top of the mountain the beginning of the hike was all downhill and quite pleasant. It was cool but not cold and the sun had not come up yet. I was able to get some good pictures of the sunrise from a rocky outcropping that gave pretty good views towards the east.

When I arrived at the first road crossing in Woody Gap I met another hiker who had just been let off by a shuttle. It turns out that he is also a Florida grad (grew up in Winter Haven or Winter garden or one of the Florida winners) but has been living in Cleveland most of his life. He is just out for a few days but he was keeping up with my pace pretty well. It turns out he is also an Eagle Scout and also went to Philmont so we talked quite a bit about that. We are 10 years apart in age so it was interesting talking about how scouting was a little bit different between our two experiences. He told me a lot about his family and his daughter who is an outdoor guide. It sounds like she is the one fueling his interest in hiking again. He is thinking about someday trying to do a thru-hike. He just recently retired and so I think he’s testing the waters right now.

We parted ways at the base of Blood Mountain before the big climb up. He needed to rest up and get some water so we talked a little bit about strategy. I wanted to summit and get into Neels Gap so I could resupply for my next hundred miles. I knew the store closed at 5:00 p.m. so I couldn’t wait around too much longer.

I remember my trip up Blood Mountain in ’89 very vividly because a lot of things went wrong. It was just above freezing, I had rain gear but no fleece, and because it had been raining all day I didn’t stop to eat and I was low on energy. The last mile up to the summit of Blood Mountain is pretty steep and I remember the vegetation changing to rhododendron as I neared the top. As I hiked it today it did indeed change to rhododendron as I neared the top.

The main thing that made the 1989 hike up Blood Mountain most memorable was because it was cold. I was low on energy because I wasn’t eating enough food and I experienced the physical phenomenon that I had never experienced before. The last 300 or 400 ft going up to the summit I remember the periphery of my vision beginning to sway around and eventually turning to gray. I kept on hiking and eventually I realized I was getting tunnel vision and could only see a cone of about 10° directly in front of my face. By that time my hands were really numb. I could hardly use them. There’s no way I could have tied my shoes or signed my name but I kept pushing up the mountain because I knew there was a stone shelter up top where I thought I could at least get out of the rain and maybe get warm.

I remember very distinctly in 1989 that I reached the shelter at 3:00 p.m. in total exhaustion and I immediately laid on the floor and just sat there for about 10 minutes without moving. There was an older gentleman already in the shelter and he was trying to start a fire with wet wood. All he really said to me was “Hey, there’s a hostile down the mountain that will give you food if you get there in time”. He didn’t say anything like “Gee, you look bad. Do you need any help?” No, he just wanted me to leave. I ate something simple, probably a granola bar, drank a little, and then I distinctly remembered getting up and leaving at 3:30 because it was 2 and 1/2 miles down the mountain and if you didn’t make it to the office by 5:00 p.m. when they close you were out of luck for the whole day. And I was definitely in need of a shower, laundry, and a spaghetti dinner that night. So I took off in the rain as quickly as I could down a really steep and rocky trail. I made it down to the store at a quarter till 5:00 and they had a good selection of outdoor gear so immediately after signing up for the hostel and the dinner I bought a few items to eat and then bought a fleece. It was a brand I had never heard of before and it was very expensive but I bought it because I knew that I had not packed enough warm clothes for the cold weather that I was experiencing in the mountains. It was a kokoda fleece and I still have it today even though Karen wears it more than I do. It’s one of the best pieces of gear I’ve ever purchased in my life. It’s one piece of gear that may have actually saved my life as well.

So on this trip everything pretty much played out exactly the same except for the weather was nice – probably in the upper 70s, breezy and sunny – so I could see a long distance and I was barely tired when I got to the top. I arrived at exactly 3:00, had a snack and a drink, and left at exactly 3:30. I had the same intentions of making it down to the store by 5:00 p.m. but I was not rushing this time. I took my normal time because I knew that there was also another camp store about a half a mile down the road in case I didn’t make it to this one on time. But as luck would have it it took me exactly the same amount of time. I got there at a quarter to 5:00. The store was still open. The hostel is closed because of COVID but I was able to get laundry and a shower and all the food I needed to get me to Wesser.

It took close to 2 hours to finish laundry so I headed up the mountain not knowing how far I would go tonight. It looks like that answer is about 3 mi so I’m comfortably in front of where I really needed to be today and that feels good. I could have made it a little farther today but I did enjoy the morning walking with the other hiker. I hope he decided to stay on the top of Blood Mountain tonight and we’ll make a more leisurely climb down Blood Mountain because it is very steep and I know he was tired. Hopefully the rest of his trip will go well enough that he will decide one day to also thru-hike.

Today was a nice day. The temperature was pretty cool, but it got hot in the afternoon.  I got a late start because I’m trying not to go too far today so I purposely laid in the hammock for an extra hour listening to music and then got up and took off around 8 a.m.

First stop was the falls at Long Creek.  I remember stopping there 30 years ago with my dad and I remember them pretty vividly and when I got there they looked the same but they looked way bigger and the trail on the way to there did not look familiar at all.  It’s amazing how many things look the same and yet how many things look different. The trail leaving the falls also looked different and I thought I remembered that quite well.

I still can’t get over how different it feels in Georgia in the summertime with everything green versus every other time I’ve been here it’s been January through May and there’s been no leaves on the trees . There is some tree that has a weird smell and I can smell that for about a mile at a time and it seems to pop up about every 10 miles I have no idea what it is but I’d love to find out.  There are also a lot more rhododendron than I remember. North Carolina and Pennsylvania are the states I remember for Rhododendron tunnels but Georgia trees are shorter and have a different look.  They don’t arch over the trail the way they do in North Carolina but it’s still a neat place to hike.

The shelters I passed today Hawk mountain and Gooch Gap are still there but the shelters are very different now.  I think they both have been replaced.  The old shelters I remember only sleeping 6 but these new shelters were two stories and could easily sleep 12.  They were both in very good shape and look like they would be a good place to stay.

I didn’t meet as many people along the trail as I did yesterday but there were still quite a few. I can tell this is still holiday traffic but now that the holiday is over I expect tomorrow to be pretty bare.

The stretch from Hawk Mountain shelter the Justis Creek is a little over 6 miles and there are signs and posts warning that there’s no water and you need to carry plenty.  I carried a little bit over a liter and a half and I made it, but I was basically Out of Water by the time I got there. I also got there later than I thought by almost an hour and I was pretty thirsty. I made my coffee at 3:30 which I’m used to having it around 2  but after drinking a coffee and half of a Gatorade I felt great for at least the next 45 minutes to an hour I need to make sure I can get my coffee between 2 and 3 so that I don’t get tired in the afternoon.

I wanted to make about 15 miles for the day so I looked for a spot about that distance away and found that there was a mountain top that had a rocky out cropping and the comments said that there was campsites nearby.  It was later than I wanted it to be when I got there maybe about 6:30 to 6:40 and the spots were not great but with a hammock you don’t need a great spot. It’s not too hard to make your own great spot. But it was hard finding a tree to hang the bear bag.  But finally I found one even though it was a dead tree it looks to be strong enough as long as a bear doesn’t get too determined to get my food.

 I made my dinner out on that outcropping with the sunset going down behind the trees and it was a nice peaceful dinner.

I am only about 11 miles from Neels Gap and that’s where I’m going to resupply.  I counted the food that I have remaining to be prepared for tomorrow.  I have two breakfast one dinner and three lunches so I need to decide am I going to try and make it all the way to Wesser which would require five and a half days of food or should I try and stop in either Helen or Franklin and make a shorter trip out of it.  I haven’t decided tonight but I’m sure by the time I get to Neil’s Gap I will have made up my mind.

I feel pretty good physically. I’m tired, my feet hurt a little bit, my hips hurt a little bit from the hip belt.  But my shoulders are fine, my calves are sore but fine, my knees are fine, and my hip sockets are fine. Overall everything is pretty good. Only one toe is a little bit sore.

The weather forecast shows warm afternoons about like today 83 to 84 as a high through about Friday and then a higher chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I will be farther enough North and have a better luck of weather for the weekend.  But the weekend is a long way away. Let’s just worry about tomorrow for now.