Day 4

As expected, today was the hardest day we've had so far. 

Alright quick quiz, what three mountains did I mention that we were crossing over today....? Blue, Rocky, and Tray. If anyone remembered those from my previous blog, I'd be impressed. 

Enough quizzes though -- we woke up this morning and the temps were in the low 20's. I don't think it got all the way down to the mid teens like the weather people were taking about, which was fine by me. Although if anyone wasn't able to camp out of the wind they might have had it rough. 

After tearing down camp, we got moving at 7:31 -- and I remember that specifically cause it was just barely after 7:30.

Our first stop for the day was .5 miles down the trail at some random spring that was gushing over the trail. Although it was cold out, it's just hard to beat fresh mountain water. While stopped, we also chose to eat breakfast and enjoy the sun slowing coming up over the horizon and warming the rocks we were on. 

I don't remember how long we ate breakfast for, but I think we were moving again by 815. We had roughly 1300 feet of elevation gain and 5.5 miles up to blue mountain. Apart from that, there's not much to say here. We just enjoyed the morning slightly warming up, and ridge walking with mountain views on both sides. 

When we got to the top of blue mountain, we talked with two hikers in their mid 50's by the names of John and Terry. Had a good time talking about the trail, shelters vs campsites, how we met vs how they met and so on. I'm not sure if we'll see them again due to differences in hiking pace, but they were level headed and enjoyable to talk too.

After blue mountain, we dropped down about 1100 feet into unicoi gap where we were greeted with some trail magic, once again. This time, we ate some clementines and strawberries -- which was just fantastic. Fresh meat and fruit is what I really crave out here. 

Upon leaving the gap, we started the ascent up rocky mountain. Here, we had to go up 1000 feet, in 1.5 miles. About half way up, we filled up water at a stream that crossed the trail. And once we got to the top, we enjoyed lounging on some warm rocks and ate lunch staring out at the distant mountains. 

Up next, a decent off rocky mountain. After losing almost 900 feet of elevation, we were at the bottom of our final big climb for the day, tray mountain. 

Tray mountain was a 2.5 mile climb where we gained slightly over 1300 feet of elevation. And we did it. Every last foot. From there to camp was another 1.5 miles or so. 

The muscles and joints are really feeling all the hiking that we've done recently. If you include Wednesday, we've done 69 miles in the last 5 days. If you exclude Wednesday, we've done 64 miles in the past 4 days. 

Going from sitting down in front of a computer to hiking every day is certainly a minor shock to the body. Thankfully, I think my body always yearns for this. A chance for physical exertion, challenge, and lots of natural air. 

We ended up going a little over 15 miles today, but with straight ups and downs, the miles felt longer. All things considered I'm feeling really good. Just a little bit of general tiredness, but nothing is in pain. My ankle has felt just about perfect today, and I think with a shorter day tomorrow, the rest will help it out. 

On that note, the plan for tomorrow: We'll want to start hiking by 8, since we have a shuttle coming to pick us up at dicks creek gap at 1230. To be on time, we'll need to do 9.3 miles in 4.5 hours, which should really be doable. 

From there, we'll head into Hiawassee, eat all the Mexican food in town, get a resupply, and spend the night at the budget inn. We'll also enjoy getting a shower for the first time in 6 days -- that'll be nice. 

Daily recap: 

- hiked 15.2 miles

- from mile marker 44.9 to 60.1

- from an unmarked campsite 2 miles past low gap to steel trap gap

- high temp was 55 and blue sky

- low temp (morning) 20

- low temp (tonight) 35 to 40

- ascent: 3,740 feet

- descent: 3,820 feet. 

Thanks for tagging along,

Tyler M. 

P.S. 

Absolutely no pressure to do so, but if you'd like to support my hike at any point, feel free to email me at tmcpherson139@gmail.com and we'll set something up. Whether this is sending us 10 bucks to get some food, or driving us somewhere to take a hot shower!