Date: 2016-04-06
From: Mooney Gap

To: Rock Gap
Miles today: 7.7
Weather: broken clouds

Today is the 10th day into my adventure. I have spent six full days hiking, two half days hiking, and two zero days. I have totaled 106.1 miles. I have learned a lot. I have made mistakes. I have had some amazing days hiking and I have a much better understanding for what lies ahead. I am going by the rules of being a thru hiker. One big rule is, hike your own hike, not someone else's. With that being said I made the decision today to go visit my sister and her family in Holly Springs NOrth Carolina through this weekend. The weather is calling for bitterly low temp possibly getting into the teens. That is too cold for my current sleeping set up. I have been very cold the last two nights, with temps last night dropping below freezing and with high winds it is not something I enjoyed at all, so I am not going to suffer through it because I don't have too. This will also give my blisters on my right foot a chance to heel up a bit before I get back at it early next week. I am also having a full size underquilt sent to me which should help keep me much warmer at night in my hammock. All that being said today started out with a 3:00am wake up call with winds whipping and temps dropping to below freezing. I slept from about 10:00pm until 3:00am. After that I was too cold. I thought about getting up around 6:00am, but it was still dark and I had someone camped right next to me and that would have woken them up for sure. So I waited until sunrise, which was a little after 7:00am. I got up, dressed my feet, got my bear bag out of the tree and then started breaking down my camp. My finger tip were frozen numb. I hate that. My water was partially froze, my cheese was froze. I did not eat any breakfast. Before I left one of the other fellas camping in the same location had started a fire. I forget his name. I am so bad with names unless I right them down. Anyways, I chatted and warmed up for a few minutes by the fire and then I left camp headed up hill. My feet were bothering me, but not going uphill, only going downhill. V had left right after me and quickly passed me with her new dog Tray. As we approached the summit the climb got very steep and I passed her back. I reached the summit of Albert Mountain at about 9:00am and V was there shortly after. Albert Mountian is 5250 feet tall and marks the 100 mile mark on the trail and has a fire tower that rises above tree level. The views were spectacular. V came up and I took a selfie with her marking the occasion. Upon leaving the summit and going down I was slowed by the pain in my feet so she got ahead and I did not see her again. I hiked 7.7 miles from 8:15am until 12:15 am until I reached Rock Gap. From there I took a $3:00 shuttle ride into Franklin and got dropped off at a enterprise car rental. I had to wait two hour to get a car. I killed the time by getting lunch at this awesome gazebo cafe place. When I got back to enterprise my car was ready and I started the 4 1/2 hour drive to my sisters. The drive was nice and relaxing, especially because my shoes were off the whole time. I got to the house around 7:00pm. We had barbecue chicken, corn on the cob and french fries. After dinner Doug, who is my sisters husband, and Abby, my niece, went and got some frozen yogurt. All good stuff. We got back the house and watched some of the US women's soccer game and now I am in bed. A warm bed. I should sleep very well tonight. My eyes are ready to shut as soon as I am done with this. I will start this journal back up when I get back on the trail early next week and I just want to say thanks to everyone who has signed it. It's nice to hear form you all. Good night.