Blood Mountain

Day 3: Blood Mountain

Weather: sunny and warm

Miles travelled: 15.9

Total miles on AT: 31.7

Aches and pains: everything!

Two miles in to our hike, we came across our first trail magic! A family had set up a huge amount of breakfast (oatmeal and apples) for all the hikers coming through. She was very chatty and nice and had driven from Tennessee. 

My dad took advantage to leave behind a bit of his food that he didn't need.

I felt really slow and this time I was the one dragging. 

I can't remember much, other than dragging and plodding my way forward. We had the option to go either 9 miles or 16 because between was a section of trail that you need a bear canister to camp in, and we don't have one. We decided to go 16 miles and try to make it to a hostel before it filled up. This meant going up and down Blood Mountain. My dad was fine, but I was so tired that going up was really difficult and coming down was worse because it was nothing but huge boulders.

The views from the top of blood mountain were spectacular. And all day we hadn't seen any hikers, but there were about 10 gathered at the top snacking. 

We stayed at the hostel with an entirely new group of people, as the ones we had been with we left behind with our big day. My dad was really excited to have a shower and a bunk, and we bought some juice and hot pockets. At night, a church group came in and made us pork tenderloin burgers, which were very good, but I left the party early (missing the old group actually) and slept.

Day 4: Low Gap

Weather: mostly foggy and rainy, scattered afternoon sun

Miles hiked: 11.6

Total miles on AT: 43.3

Aches and pains: feet (arches, toes), knees, calves, left hip

I woke up early to the sound of the rambunctious crowd rousing and my dad and I packed up and left. He had a skip to his step, he was so happy to have showered and read for a couple hours and slept well. I was still trudging all day though. Every time someone would pass me, I'd think how young I am and how terrible it is that I can't bound up mountains and hike 20 miles a day to start.

It was incredibly foggy and raining most of the morning.

It finally cleared a bit and we saw a little blue sky. We hiked up a few hills and small mountains, and at the peak of one we found daffodils in full bloom!

We decided to stop early at a shelter because my feet were starting to really hurt and we didn't want to squeeze the two of us into my one-man tent. There ended up only being six of us in a shelter for seven, even though there are probably 35 people camped around. There's another girl in the shelter, Cooper Trooper, and she brought a deck of cards so she, Mike (saw him in the first shelter too), and I played rummy till we ran out of light. 

There's a pretty stream running right in front of the shelter, and now it's foggy and raining again so I'm glad to not be in my tent!

Tomorrow is my last day with my dad before he goes home. It's been fun having him around though.