Date: 2018-03-24
From: Blue Mountain Shelter 

To: Deep Gap Shelter 
Miles today: 15.5
Weather: clear sky

I don¢t even know where to start. Okay I¢ll guess I¢ll start with when we got up. We got up at 7 and packed up and started hiking by 8:20. We had a steep walk down Blue Mountain. When we got down to Unicoi Gap, some trail magic. Our trail angels had not had a chance to set up the grill and start cooking but they gave us what they could which was hostess donuts. We told them we were thinks about stopping at Tray Mountain Shelter, but one of the women said she recommended we not stay there with the weather coming in. That said it would get very cold and windy, setting on top of a mountain. So we made the very foolish decision to hike to Deep Gap Shelter.As any hiker will tell you Gap becomes a dirty word. Why you ask? Because this usually means a long steep climb. We began the roller coaster coming down Blue Mountain and then climbing up Rocky Mountain and then down to Indian Gap, were we saw the best sight hungry hikers could see, a family providing trail magic in the form of BBQ sandwiches, vegetable soup, chips, cookies and a variety of drinks and a chairs to sit in. We thought that would be enough to help us make it to our destination. Then of course we began the climb up some unknown mountain and then down again to Tray Gap and then up Tray Mountain. We took a short break at the sign for Tray Mountain Shelter, but it was already 2:30 and we had 7 more miles to go, so we tried to kick into high gear which lasted only one mile. We had 6 more miles to go and were flagging quickly. Oh, and did I mention we had rain threatening us the entire day. We did get sprinkled on. By 4 miles to go we were both dying. We came down Tray Mountain and went up and down some more but we had one more big climb ahead of us, Kelly Knob, a mile straight up and a mile straight down. That was our last two miles before we reached the shelter. We staggered up to the shelter around 7:30, and of course there was not room for both of us in the shelter. Tony virtually collapsed on the shelter step and I quickly got about the business of setting up the tent, when another trail angel, named Laura, appeared before me and offered to help me set up the tent. We quickly got it set up and she asked what else she could do to help, if we wanted her to cook anything. Tony and I neither one had any appetite, though. We just wanted to go to sleep. Laura was kind enough to filter us water while I continued to get stuff organized in our tent. When she got back it started raining so I quickly put our packs in the tent and finished unpacking. Then I had to go put our bear bags in the bear box. I got back to our tent and was getting ready to go to sleep when I saw my coffee filtering thing. I smelled it and it definitely smelled like food so I got back out in the rain and put it in the bear bag.I crawled back in the tent and called a hotel to see if they had a room for Sunday and they did. I then scheduled a shuttle to pick us up at 10:00 the next morning. And then I tried calling my husband, Sam. I then attempted to go to sleep but my legs shook for about 30 minutes. It rained really hard off and on the whole night. But we remained dry.