Getting into the swing of things: Days 6 - 10

Hello from Franklin! I have updated our ETA's on the Mail Drop page! We have started to pick up the pace in order to meet our 15-mile per day average, but we are not quite there. My injury has fully recovered, as you will read in future blog posts. 

Below is a summary of days 6 through 10 on the trail. I think posting in 4 day groupings makes blogging a bit more manageable. 

We haven't posted many photos yet because we are still working out transferring them from the camera to the iPad. Hopefully soon though! 

Day 6: Zero in Hiawassee

Our zero mile day (commonly called a Zero in the hiking world) in Hiawassee was just what I needed to heal up and feel better. We woke up pretty early, ate breakfast at the Subway, talked about our hiking plan, and started in on the chores that needed to be done. We sorted laundry and set up the tent. We laid the sleeping bags over a railing in the sun so they could air out and dry out a little. I brushed Sheila and brushed her teeth. We then decided to take a break and walk up to the local grocery store, Ingles, for lunch and resupply. We have been jokingly calling the place Inglés (as in the Spanish word for english), so we had a lot of fun walking around and deciding what we would eat for the next ten days. We decided to stock up on all the hiker favorites, things that are lightweight but calorie-packed like Ramen and Snickers. We had also heard about this great recipe for a backpacker's Pad Thai that called for chunky peanut butter in chicken-flavored Ramen with a little hot sauce added. I was particularly stoked about this meal option, as Pad Thai is one of my favorite foods. We also bought a lot of trail bars and these great breakfast biscuits that would be sure to get us going in the morning. For lunch, we settled on a great Ingles deli sub made with Boar's Head meats. We agreed to only eat half today so we could eat the other half on the trail the next day. We also bought a bag of Cheez-Its, which were a wonderfully salty and cheesey snack to balance all of the sweet and bland trail bars. When dinner time rolled around, we walked up to the local all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffet, Daniel's. We heard from our shuttle driver that they had a pretty great salad bar and we were in desperate need of some veggies. The salad bar ended up being only okay, and everything else was fried. I had an entire plate of deep-fried, brown meats. Since the veggie options weren't spectacular, we opted to finish off with a dessert of raw broccoli (the only real vegetable on the bar besides cucumbers). Feeling pretty satisfied, we hiked back to the motel to pack our bags and get ready to hit the trail the next day. We ended up sharing a couple of beers with a couple of other hikers, Honeybun and Derrick, who had pulled a 19 mile day to get into town. They were both planning to zero as a result. I think they might have been ex-military, but I could be wrong. We had a great night overall, and were excited to get back out there. My leg was feeling much, much better, but even so, we talked about taking it slow once we hit the trail, doing low-mileage days just to make sure everything would be alright. Sheila relished her time in town, sleeping most of the day away.

Day 7: Tesnatee to Low Gap Shelter 
We woke up pretty early in order to get our bags packed and be ready by our 9am shuttle departure time. Our driver ended up knocking on our door at 8:15am, which made me feel rushed. We hit the post office so Chase could fill out his change of address form and then headed to the gap. I was feeling pretty ready to take on the day. The man who drove us back to the gap seemed nice enough, kind of your "good ol' boy" type. We got to the gap a little after 9:30am and started our huff up out of the gap carrying 10 days worth of food and full water. Just before setting off, we met a hiker named Penguinman whom we had met at the base of Springer our second day on the trail. At the time, he had been heading up to the top with his wife in order to get some pictures of him signing the register and near the plaque, etc. His wife was wearing a big, puffy parka with faux fur around the hood and a pair of baggy jeans. We heard later on that she wasn't able to get up to the top of Springer, and I'm not surprised. It was really icy that day. Anyway, we met Penguinman again and set off from the bottom of Tesnatee Gap. The climb was just as hard as it had been two days ago, but by taking it at an easy pace with lots of stops to rest, we made it to the top without incident. We were passed by quite a few hikers on the way, but we made it! There were several great views from the top of the gap. It was such a beautiful and sunny day, you could actually see the outline of Atlanta in the distance. Seeing the hazy outline of a gigantic city from the top of a mountain will certainly make you feel very small. After sightseeing for a bit, we pushed on to Hogpen Gap and ate our lunch of leftover subs in a little clearing. Some section hikers passed us while we ate, as did Penguinman, who had stopped at Hogpen to get water. We took our time and made it to Low Gap Shelter by about 3pm. The shelter area was really beautiful and the water source was great. There were many great places to tent as well. The section hikers who passed us earlier were setting up in the shelter and building a fire. We all chatted a bit as I signed the register, and then we went off to set up our tent. Some other thru-hikers trickled in as we set up camp and made dinner. Trish and her boyfriend Jessie recognized us from the blogosphere because of Sheila. She has made us so popular! Trisha was really funny and thinking back on that night, I hope we bump into them again soon. A couple of solo thru-hikers joined our little group, including a guy named Gizmo who had hiked from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The night at Low Gap marked his 66th on the trail. The last group to arrive was a couple that I had actually been in contact with a little pre-trail, Kristin and Eric (now known as Icicle and Quailman). They were super awesome and I was really glad we got to meet them. If it wasn't for having to pull off the trail for a day, we may have not met them so soon! Our little group of hikers stayed up until 9pm, talking and passing a flask around the campfire. So many great stories were told and lots of great coversation was had that night. It was probably one of my favorite nights on the trail, and I'm very grateful for the zero in Hiawassee for making it possible!

Day 8: Low Gap Shelter to Blue Mountain Shelter
After such a great night, Chase and I woke up and got out of camp later than we wanted to. This wasn't that big of a deal, since we were planning a pretty low mileage day anyway. While we packed up camp, Icicle and Quailman offered to carry some of our weight for us to help my leg recover and take some of the burden off of Chase. They were planning a shorter day as well and seemed really eager to help out, so we graciously accepted their offer. They hiked a bit faster than us, so even though we got out of camp earlier, they passed us in the first few miles. Taking it easy allowed us to really take in the scenery. It was another warm, lovely day on the trail filled with sunshine and a few great views. The beauty of hiking in the winter is that you almost always have a view of the mountains surrounding you. We took our last break of the day 3 miles from the shelter. The terrain looked really easy, so I wasn't worried about worsening my injury at all, but this last bit of the hike ended up being tons of rocks. Rocks are terrible because they wear your feet out if you walk on them, they can move and make you roll an ankle very easily, and you have to slow way down to avoid either of those things. We finally made it the shelter a little after Icicle and Quailman. They were still plopped on the ground eating what they could, which is a pretty common practice (eat first, everything else second) after a day of hiking. Chase set up the tent while I gathered water and signed the register. We also collected firewood and got ready to have a little campfire that night. That is the great thing about getting into camp early; so much time to do things before it gets dark and cold. We ended up sitting around with them until about 8pm. They were planning on zeroing at the shelter the next day to let Icicle rest a little, as she was thinking she might have pulled a muscle in her calf hiking through the rocks. It was nice being able to hang out with them a second night and get to know them more. We finished off the last of the booze we packed in and called it a night.

Day 9: Blue Mountain Shelter to Rocky Mountain
Our ninth day on the trail was pretty interesting. We woke up later than we wanted (as usual), took a group photo with Icicle and Quailman, said our good-byes, and hit the trail. It was very cold and windy, so we stopped a little way down the trail and put our mid layers back on. I have these Outdoor Research Flurry mittens that are amazing. Even in the high winds, my hands were toasty warm. We hiked down into Unicoi Gap feeling very good. The pain in my leg seemed to have disappeared entirely. We were already craving a burger, so we decided to try our hand at hitching and to grab lunch in Hiawassee. Chase stood out by the road while I hung back at the parking lot because I was feeling a bit shy. 15 minutes or so went by with no luck, and I was putting my pack on to keep going up the trail when a white SUV pulled in to drop off a hiker. The elderly couple kindly offered to take all 3 of us into town. They ended up buying us lunch from Hardee's which was an incredible piece of trail magic! Even Sheila got a burger! From the Hardee's we walked over to the Ingles and restocked on snacks. Chase had been eating like a bear already, and we needed more snacks to keep him happy. We also picked up some Terra chips for Icicle and Quailman! $40 later, we had to hitch back out the gap. We set off down the road and waited until we were on the edge of town to stick our thumbs out. It really was embarrassing for me, but after a few minutes, it seemed like the natural thing to do. In a trail town like Hiawassee, we didn't expect to wait long for a ride, and we didn't. A gentleman in an older Chevy truck picked us up as he was leaving town. Sheila and I jumped in the back of the truck and off we went! Unfortunately, the guy was about to run out of gas, so he had to drop us off about 2 miles from the gap and head back to town. I guess when we picked us up he thought we were going to Dick's Creek Gap. Anyway, we stuck our thumbs out again, this time on a country mountian highway between two small towns. It seemed like more people were driving into Hiawassee than into Helen, and we didn't get a ride until we were about a mile from the gap. It seems like when you have no hope left, the trail provides. A guy named Mike picked us up. His kids own the Hayloft restaurant in Helen, GA. He told us that at the Hayloft, they will come pick you up from the gap to eat lunch! That would have been good for us to know earlier in the day! Because of the unexpected hitching adventure, we didn't get back to the gap until 4 o'clock. We checked the guide and decided we could only get to the campsite on top of Rocky Mountain before nightfall. My leg  was feeling a bit sore from walking on the road with out trekking poles, but as soon as my feet touched the mountain, everything felt fine. We climbed out of the gap and arrived sooner than expected at the campsite. The camping area was beautiful; nice grassy and mossy spot with a view of the town below. As night fell, the city lights came to life below and provided a contrast to the starry night above. It was a cold and windy night on top of the mountain. At this point, life on the trail was beginning to normalize and really feel like home.

Day 10: Rocky Mountain to Sassafras Gap
Because I was feeling better, we decided to push our miles up a little and get to Sassafras Gap that day. We got out of camp pretty early, but the wind was bitterly cold and seemed to cut through to the bone. It was a foggy morning but as the sun rose and teh fog burned off, the day proved to be sunny and warm again. The great weather really made my mood soar. We made great time to Tray Mountain Shelter, where we took a longer break to get water and eat lunch. On the way out of the shelter, we ended up running into Icicle and Quailman! They were planning on camping at Sassafras Gap and to go into Hiawassee from Dick's Creek Gap the next day. We let them hike on ahead and continued to take it easy on our longest day since my injury yet. We met a group of hikers from Germany at Steeltrap Gap as we were taking a break. They were also heading for Sassafras and was wondering how to signal to their third hiking buddy that they moved on. I was changing my pants at the time. No time for modesty on the trail! ;) The Patagonia Houdini wind pants I was wearing as hiking pants had torn a bit in the seat of the pants and I didn't want to further damage them, so I changed to just hiking in my base layer bottoms. We moved on ahead of the Germas, but they caught up and passed us soon after. The last few miles to Sassafras Gap were mostly uphill, and it took us longer to reach the gap than I thought. I was trying not to feel too down about moving slow; after all I was still recovering. We met up with Icicle and Quailman and set up our tent near theirs. I have them the Terra chips and they seemed really grateful! I guess they were on their last portions of food before resupply in Hiawassee. We shared the bag between the four us as we set up home for the night. No campfire that night; we were all pretty beat and we were looking at a harder day in terms of elevation changes for that next day. It was a quiet night indeed. 

Posting blog updates has proven to be a little more sparse than we anticipated. I promise to try and do better! Chores tend to eat up your free time when you get into camp, especially if you arrive late. Also, I tend to be so tired at the end of the night that I fall asleep by 8pm. I have been keeping up a written journal to help reflect on the days past. 

Thank you everyone for your continued support!