Date: 2017-10-12
From: Tent Site Just North of the Road to Hiawassee

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 26.8
Weather: clear sky

I got up at my campsite at about 5:30. The whole place was shrouded in clouds and I could see mist floating in front of my headlamp. It was raining lightly, but I broke camp and ate breakfast. After reviewing my plan for the next couple of days, I got underway on the trail shortly after 7:15 a.m. Reached Powell Mountain about 8:30 a.m., and just before 9 a.m., reached the intersection with the side trail to the Deep Gap shelter. According to the guide, the shelter was 0.3 miles off the trail. That felt like too much of a diversion for a snack break, so I kept going.Shortly after 9 a.m., it stopped raining and got sunny. Cool, but sunny. And the trail began to dry off again. About 9:15 a.m. I arrived at the top of Kelly Knob, the last peak over 4,000 ft in Georgia. There was a nice view to the northeast, and I could see where I had been yesterday - mountain peaks and ridgelines with intervening valleys blanketed with fluffy white clouds. I stopped for a quick water break. (Picture) Then I continued south.About 9:30 a.m. or so, as I descended the southern side of Kelly Knob, I walked into what was undoubtedly the white blanket described above. Conditions reverted to what I had experienced when I got up. Wet trail. Fog. Light rain. Once I passed the Addis Gap area and started climbing again, the clouds had mostly cleared up. It was sunny and cool again, but the trail was damp and only beginning to dry off.I arrived at the side trail to the Tray Mountain shelter right about 11:30 a.m. and decided to stop for lunch and replenish my water supply. There were also some very nice views along this path. (Picture) After lunch, I was back on the trail at 12:15 p.m. going up and down a couple of times, I eventually reached and crossed Georgia Route 75 at Unicoi Gap at about 2:30 p.m. On the way down I had met several section hikers, including Ned, a policeman, wearing an orange football jersey labeled "Coach" and a large external frame backpack that he acknowledged was too heavy but said was very comfortable. Ned was getting water further downstream, from a source at which I topped off. We talked for a few minutes, about hiking in general and about conditions on the trail in both directions in particular, and then we wished each other a good hike and continued on in our respective directions.I reached the Blue Mountain shelter about 3:45 p.m. On both sides of Blue Mountain, south of Unicoi Gap I saw an incredible number of blown down trees. Very big ones. I was impressed by how much maintenance had already been done, since there was indication that this was fresh trailhead clearing work, and it had occurred since Hurricane Irma created this mess. I felt the timing of my arrival in this section of the trail was fortunate. On the way down the south side of Blue Mountain, I met someone who I first thought was a day hiker with a small dog off leash. This turned out to be a trail maintainer who has had responsibility for the section a few miles north of Spring Mountain for sometime and who just recently picked up responsibility for the section I was hiking south of Unicoi Gap. We talked a while, and then I continued hiking. I heard what sounded like rifle fire, and wondered if it was associated with units training around Camp Merrill, near Dahlonega, Georgia. My brother had talked about the mountain phase of the Army Ranger course that he had attended there years ago.I passed a couple sets of short-section hikers in my last couple of miles today, and we exchanged information about the trail ahead in each direction. I arrived at the Poplar Stamp Gap tent site at about 5:45 p.m., and I decided to go on to the Low Gap shelter, about two miles further. I knew I could get water between Poplar Stamp and a shelter, but I didn't know if there would be any cell phone reception there. Since Poplar Stamp was on high ground, and I had a good signal there, I decided to go ahead and upload this initial journal for today.