Date: 2022-04-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: scattered clouds

I¢ve come a long way today. It was really cold this morning. I almost didn¢t get up. Thinking I would wait until it got warmer. But I did and my knees were so stiff. The left one was hurt really bad. I took ibuprofen with breakfast and got moving slowly at 8:45. It took maybe 20 mins for me to get passed by Zack ¢glueber¢ and Anna ¢Almost¢. I let them leave me behind. I was trying to take it slow with me knee. But after about an hour my joints had warmed up and I was moving good. I actually caught up to Almost as she was shedding layers of clothes. After that I forced myself to stick with her. It was a good pace. One I would have done naturally if my knee wasn¢t hurt. We talked about life, what got us to be out on the AT, family, jobs, thoughts on society as a whole, etc. She was an Outdoor Education major and has worked in the outdoor industry. We have a lot in common with our passions and what we like to do for work. It was a great talk. It made the morning fly by. I stopped to shed a layer, get water and a snack, around 11:30am and that¢s when she pushed on. I made it to Blue Mountain shelter at 12:30ish and found friends. (Emily, Jebry ¢Moon¢, Zack (the guy I checked in with the first day), and Erin. So I stopped for lunch as they slowly moved on. I was going to take a nap in the sun since it was up in the 60¢s but Moon said I had to keep my knee moving or I wouldn¢t get going again. I knew she was right so I did. Glueber and Almost were at the shelter when we left and they were going to stay the night there. I am glad I pushed on but staying would have been cool. I later learned that the sunrise from Blue Mountain shelter is breath taking. Another time I guess.From there it was up and over two mountains and then down an incredibly rocky, that was very technical, into Unicoi Gap. I actually loved it because I could step from rock to rock and not really have to bend my knees.>span class="s1">Oh coming over the first mountain that morning I noticed a mountain in front of us that has a tower on top of it. I then noticed it again from Blue Mountain Shelter to the west. And then as I climbed out of Unicoi Gap it was behind me. I don¢t know what it was or what it¢s used for but I want to find out.I caught up with Erin about one mile from our campsite for the night and got to connect with her. Finally made it to Cheese Factory for the night around 4:30ish. I felt good all afternoon my knees were giving me hardly any trouble at all. I took my shoes off to discover blisters on my feet. I will put some tape over them before I head out in the morning. I was so tired that I didn¢t put my tent up. I just started eating. The hiker hunger is beginning to catch up with me.While I sat around the fire with people I got my Trail Name. Skip said she had been thinking about it. Would I like ¢gamer¢ because I started the game on the second night, or ¢Tag¢ or ¢Mash¢ because both of those are camp games. I laughed and said I wasn¢t a fan of gamer. So she asked what my favorite camp games were. Since I used to work at one I had to have one. I really didn¢t want to share at that point but that just made the whole group push me to share. My favorite game that we did at VJ is ¢Ride My Pony, My Fat Little Pony¢. The group erupted with laughter and had to know how it went. So I shared. They all agreed that it sounded fun for a camp game. So the name then was given ¢Fat Pony¢. I had a chance to say no. As everyone gets a choice and chance to get out of something if they don¢t like it. Which I love about the culture of the hikers. But I knew there was no way I was going to live it down and what a great Trail Name. So my name is now Fat Pony.I was just going to sleep under the stars since it wont be raining tonight and there hasn¢t been hardly any dew in the mornings. But I eventually did put my fast fly up over the poles of my tent. They aren¢t designed to work that way but I made it work. That¢s right it only took my 6 days to decide that a tent might not be worth it. At this rate I will just have a tarp over me in my sleeping bag in a matter of a few weeks.