Day 5 – Blue Ridge Swag

Today was an ass kicker! Lots of elevation gain and loss today.

Last night in my tent, while trying to sleep, I could hear some bugs rustling outside. I’m not sure what they were, but I certainly played with my imagination a little. Fortunately, I quickly decided that what was happening there was none of my business and fell back asleep. Because while the night is dark and full of terrors, surely the thin fabric of my tent will protect me from everything… It probably also helped that I was simply very tired.

Limited Unicoi Gap

It was a little chilly to start the day camping, but with the sun peeking over the mountains, the heat was quickly increasing, so I started walking in just a t-shirt. It was a little cold at first, but after a climb to start the day, it was quite warm. Unlike yesterday, today has been a day full of ups and downs. Literally. It started with a major descent towards Unicoi Gap where I encountered Trail Magic! A church group in South Georgia was serving some food that I happily ate: a hamburger or two in the morning, a banana, and a Powerade. After spending 30 minutes there, I decided that if I wanted to reach my ultimate goal today of reaching Deep Gap Shelter, I needed to move forward.

The climb from Unicoi Gap was long, over 1000 feet of elevation gain in about a mile and a half. After another big descent into Indian Grave Gap, I had the long, hard climb up Tray Mountain, which was the big climb of the day with 1,400 feet of elevation gain. With the sun rising and the day warming up, this was fantastic! But the view from the top was fantastic. It rains on other hikers and a couple of section hikers at the top and we all enjoy the view and have a snack.

As with all things on land, what goes up must come down again and another long, hot quad descent followed. The temperature continued to climb into the 60s and the sun was relentless and there were still no leaves on the trees. I know it doesn’t sound that warm, but it sure did at the time, especially compared to the last few days.

Along the way today I also met several hikers who I shared the hostel with my first night! It was fun to catch up with them and see how the last few days have been going. Many of them had plans similar to mine: take a NERO to Dick’s Creek Gap and ride to Hiawassee tomorrow. Hopefully we can meet in the city too. After that there was one last climb of the day, which while it wasn’t as high as the last two, getting to the end of the day and knowing it was so close to camp made it seem endless. But on the final descent of the day, passing over the ridge after a long climb, a cool breeze greeted me like an old friend! Just what I needed, a nice cool breeze blowing through my proverbial hair.

Bubble?

Arriving at the shelter shortly after 5pm, it was packed to the rafters when I arrived! There must have been about 20 tents there. Maybe I finally found the bubble!?! While I was busy anyway, I discovered that there was a large mouse infestation in the shelter, so almost everyone opted to camp. Me too, but unfortunately arriving later that day, my tent site wasn’t great and therefore my tent site was pretty sad… On the plus side, I came up with an awesome new food combination! Cheetos with jalapeno and cheddar cheese (courtesy of trail magic from earlier in the day), pepperoni (Hormel Twin Link pepperoni cut in half) and wrapped in a flour tortilla like a burrito. 5 stars, would recommend!

my masterpiece

Day 5 Stats:

15.8 miles

4462′ Ascent, 4895′ Descend

From Blue Mountain Shelter to Deep Gap Shelter

5 days without cathole…

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