From Justus to Lance Creek: Screaming Arches

We were a little better on the third morning and actually managed to be the second people to leave camp. However, the arches in our feet were absolutely killing us, so it wasn’t long before everyone ended up passing us. Almost everyone had beaten us to it when we filtered the morning water.

With all the discomfort in the pads of my screaming feet, I thought today would be the day to put on some music and walk through the pain until we finished at our next campsite. Let me tell you, music, after not having listened to it for a while, is an absolutely wonderful motivation for difficult hikes.

I was listening to some punk rock and encouraged myself to go up, and then some nice quiet pedal steel solos on the downhill segments. Today’s overviews were simply amazing, with a great overview of the North Georgia landscape. The combination of the sights mixed with my carefully selected artificial sounds almost made me a little emotional.

This beautiful walk was slightly undermined by the severe pain Jessie and I felt in the arches of our feet. We took the opportunity at Woody Gap to sit for a while and massage our arches. Looking across the road, we saw a structure so glorious we had to check we weren’t dreaming. No, this wasn’t a miserable loo, it was a genuine, fully functioning vault toilet with toilet paper to boot (in one of the stalls anyway). It’s surprising the things that excite you in a state of deprivation.

This was also where we came across Mrs. Control, Alt, Delete or Reboot for short. She gave us lots of advice about the upcoming Blood Mountain and told us about all the injuries she had seen on the summit. She also told us all the details of her illness that distracted her for a while (including a description of all the things that came out of her body). If you know the symptoms of norovirus I’ll spare you the details, but she attributed it to being “fat and out of shape.” It still sounded crazy to Jessie and me.

We took the opportunity to throw our trash into the picnic area’s bins and continued into Blood Mountain Wilderness. We were planning to go a little further, but our feet were screaming at us to stop, so we ended the day early at Lance Creek. We were happy to see lots of familiar faces already sitting in a circle and chatting, which made the afternoon incredibly enjoyable.

We all told the exact same story about Reboot and laughed when we found out that she only told Jessie and me about her body happenings out of the way. I guess we felt like safe people to admit it. We got to know everyone a little better and ended up playing guitar around an imaginary campfire (yes, someone actually carries a guitar with them on their hike). It was a nice end to a pretty difficult day of hiking.

Tomorrow we should reach Neels Gap and visit the famous store. Lord knows we’re looking forward to some pizza and gear resupply.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.