Goodbye Hiawassee, welcome back pain

Good news! In fact, Jessie’s blisters improved a little overnight and she was able to join the Unicoi section to Dick’s Creek Gap. We didn’t go the full 17 miles, but she was able to make it through 11 before calling it off.

The hike itself had many peaks today. Tray Mountain in particular was quite notable for two reasons. First, the summit was very picturesque and inviting, covered in Mountain Laurel tunnels. And two, the climb never ended.

We had to stop halfway to change the bandages on Jessie’s blisters. They looked a little better, but prosperous and comfortable are not words I would use to describe the state of his feet.

I was proud of her for making it to camp. As we got closer to our destination, she resorted to the old “just say a bunch of bad words to the world” trick to ease the pain. It seemed to work because the more he cursed, the more he started to laugh.

We made sure to get a good rest this afternoon. The water source was unfortunate to be half a mile away, so I grabbed our two bags of water and off we went while Jessie started dinner.

When I returned, dinner was ready and we had some company. Rob 1, a boy we met at the hostel, had arrived. I had mentioned that Bear Bait and Rob 2 were also on the way. This was a group of people in their 60s who we had gotten to know quite a bit over the last few days. We were very happy for the company.

It’s amazing to see 60 year olds doing this. It’s hard enough to do the hike when we’re in our twenties. They also all have very fun personalities. Jessie and I laughed most of the afternoon listening to his stories and jokes.

It was a much needed break from a pretty difficult day.

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