Date: 2018-07-02
From: Sunset Field ParkingLot

To: Petites Gap 
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: light rain

13 of us had breakfast in the hotel dining room this morning. By 9am we were on our way to Sunset Field where Big Kahuna, Hugs, and I had ended our hike last Wednesday. All 13 of us plus both of our dogs started walking north. The terrain was excellent! It was mostly a packed dirt path with very few rocks and roots. We did have some rocks and boulders about 1.4 miles in as we neared The Guillotine. The Guillotine is a rock formation on the trail. It really does look like it could take somebody¢s head off! Today¢s photo is of my daughter, her husband, their 8 kiddos, and another granddaughter who belongs to a different daughter, and Papa Big Swig standing underneath the guillotine. They all have trail names now!  After the Guillotine Papa Big Swig took a couple of the kids and our old dog back to the hotel. Ice Princess was a little too small to keep up. The plan was always for her to go back with Papa Big Swig. A few others didn¢t appreciate our first big UP, so they took advantage of the opportunity to spend extra time with Papa Big Swig. The rest of us hiked on to summit Apple Orchard Mountain at 4203ft elevation. There was some kind of weather building/structure up there. It was a huge round ball with antennas. I felt like I was about to enter Epcot. My daughter Octo-mom loved the view from up there.  The bugs were horrible today! Those black gnats that bite were everywhere. Anytime I stopped walking they swarmed my face. They were in my eyes, up my nose, and in my ears. I even swallowed a couple of them. I have bites all over my legs. My one leg has a chain of bites all the way around my sock line. It seemed the insect repellent didn¢t affect them at all. I¢ll remember my insect net for tomorrow. Papa Big Swig bought nets for everybody else tonight.  We hiked about 2.5 miles to Thunder Hill Shelter. This is where we stopped for lunch. Those biting gnats were there in full force too! We managed to eat while swatting at insects the entire time.  Once we left the shelter it cooled down a little bit. There was unexpected cloud coverage which was nice. TCR hoped the rain would come...it didn¢t. However the change in temp made those nasty gnats disappear. That was better than rain! The temperature felt good. It became perfect hiking weather.  The rest of our hike was DOWN. We were scooting along pretty good when Netflix heard a rattle snake. Tre J. saw it, and Seylor aggravated it. It tried to strike Seylor but missed. It was a very big Timber Rattler! I¢m going to say at least three to four inches in diameter. I couldn¢t tell how long it was, but I got a good view of its rattles. I don¢t know how to count rattles, but a good 1.5 to 2 inched had rattles. I took a couple of photos that weren¢t very good, but you can see it in my photo album.  After that excitement we continued DOWN. There was one more stop with a view that we all enjoyed. The kids really soaked that up! They appreciated the view way more than the snake. I was just super excited to see the snake! We continued down until we popped out onto a road where we waited for Papa Big Swig to pick us up.  It was a great exciting hike!  We had an ice cream treat before swimming at the hotel.  Tomorrow we¢ll put our boots back on. Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018) Where¢s your faith?