Date: 2012-03-09
From: Low Gap Shelter

To: Rocky Mountain
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: overcast clouds

The rain had stopped by the time we all woke up. i was moving slowly and finally went to get my food bag hung on the bear cable lines "(*(%&%$$#^&*" Mice has chewed through it leaving two big holes in my now not so waterproof dry bag. They went after the whole weat bread of all things too. I was pissed and certainly not using my good words. I was so grumpy that i took extra time to cook myself a warm breakfast which i hardly ever do and to have a crystal light mixed drink as a treat. fianlly got moving around 10 after everyone else. Jimmy was funny as he headed out say "well how are we going to have our 2pm tryst." Typically I end up heading out 3 hours or so before he does as he';s a late sleeper but he's a much faster hiker so typically around 2ish ends up passing me.If yesterday was a golden day with all the leaves reflecting their fall colors when the sun hit them, then today was a green one with all the bushes that keep their leaves and the new spring growth popping up whereever there is water. the first gew miles today followed what looked like an old dirt roadbed. definently had not been in use that way for a long time but it was about 8 feet wide and a lot of effort had been put into retaining walls around the curves. A really pleasent hike with the sun occiasonally peaking through the fog. after 5 miles my feet were acheing with their new insoles so i was thankful i had held on to the old ones and switched them out for the remainder of the day. Caught up to Jimmy and LeeBob at Blue Mountain Shelter when they stopped for lunch. It was around 2 so there! This shelter was pretty exposed on top of a ridge with the wind blowning right in and it was still early in the day so LeeBob and I decided to press on. As we were coming down the hill into Unicoi gap we saw trail magic1 veggie burgers and chips and FRUIT! this made me so super excited and also guilty for how spoiled we hikers are now. Maldoon? I think was the name of this guy who had hiked last year and this was the first spot he had ever recieved trail magic so he wanted to do some himself,. He is from Maryland and drove all the way down here just for this. Really nice guy with great stories and advice. Very unassuming and I practically had to pry advice out of him because he didn't want to pressure anyone to hike the way he did. He had a alot of injuries and took a long time March 6 to oct 15 which is the last day you can hike but he made it and told us that everyone he hiked with wished the had taken longer. its hard to justify nursing my own little bruises when you here what he went through, basically every major illness a thruhiker can expierence. Cheers and Thank you so much for the food and the stories!there was a large hill out of the gap and LeeBob and I decided to pitch on top of Rocky Mountain as it was 5:30 pm and we were both exhausted. Around 8:30 pm or hikers 2:00am as we call it, I realized that i was still cold and very unhappy about it. I pulled my cell phone out and saw i had one bar so called my parents asking them to send my down summer quilt to the next trail town. My parents are awesome and my dad said he was also shipping his old army poncho liner. i may carry more weight but i swear i am sick of being cold at night. okay exhaustion time.