Date: 2018-06-02
From: Spy Rock

To: ReedÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Gap
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: light rain

Day 59- We had aspirations to get up and watch the sunrise from Spy Rock but I think the alarm scared both of us from deep dreaming when it went off. The quick and unanimous decision was to just wake up naturally today and we got moving about 7:45. The day started by reaching the top of The Priest (mountain) and then descending almost 3000 feet down before having to climb 3000 feet back up Three Ridges Peak. The whole morning we were surrounded in clouds with a light breeze. It was helping keep the temperature down and preventing us from sweating too much. We debated evolution and astrophysics before I started to get breathy and our conversation soon dissipated as we got farther into the climb. We were faced with our first dilemma today in regards to some of our thruhiking principles. We knew weather was coming but it wasn¢t there yet when we were presented with a side trail that would be 3 to 4 miles shorter and would also go around the peak instead of climbing to the summit. We decided to stick to the AT; we could always come back if needed in regards to risk management. At the next shelter, we met up with a trail family that we really enjoyed spending time with back at Woods Hole. After the normal banter, we brought up the side trail and one of them let us know that there is actually an amazingly gorgeous and very tall waterfall, one of the biggest on the East Coast, on the side trail. We had started asking ourselves what would we be missing if we had gotten off the AT and here is a prime example where maybe choosing the AT was not always the best choice. We were definitely conflicted but had committed to the climb. The rain started as we got close to halfway with distant thunder not soon after. As much as I wanted to spend time with this new group of people, my preference was to get up and down the other side of this thing before I felt uncomfortable like I had at Tinker Cliffs. The lightning never showed up close to us and the rain stayed heavy for the final miles to Reed¢s gap where we planned to end the day. Since Georgia, we¢ve been hearing about this great brewery and were fortunate to have the end of our day naturally line up with the road crossing. It was a tough hitch down to the Devil¢s Backbone Brewery Basecamp. What a treat it was!For being such an upscale, almost bougie, brewery, they treated us like we were VIP members. The quality of their staff and their facility is exceptional and the fact that we were treated with such kindness and generosity was astounding. In addition to free camping and a free ride back to trail in the morning, on this special day we got free entry to a music festival they were hosting. With our hiker tags in hand, we got our wristbands and got to indulge in beer tasting from six local breweries, dance to local music, and finish the night off in the complementary Smore makings station. And in the mist of all this, another thruhiker had family visiting. Mama Gump, Auntie Gump, and Uncle Gump treated us to an incredible dinner at the restaurant. Between the Gump family and the Devil¢s Backbone family, we felt so supported, so welcome, and we were so happy especially after a couple of hard days.For friends and family reading this, most of you know that Broken Seal and I met dancing. With all the traveling we¢ve been doing, it¢s been a long time since we¢ve gone dancing but I must say, he still got it!