Day 4 on the Appalachian trail

Neels Gap to Whitley Gap Shelter - Mile 55.7 - Apr 20_th, 2018

Oh gosh, not only was this morning tough but it was even more tough than the last because I could tell that the kids especially my daughter was upset with me hitting the trail again. Bless her heart she tries to be so strong like her Momma but this time I think it got the best of her, she didn't want to let me go. Of course here I go again saying bye to Joe and knowing what it was going to be like without him but I felt strong was feeling good and ready to tackle this next week.

Immediately starting out it was up, up and more ups. I spent my day hiking alone, I got passed once by this couple thru hiking and flip flopped with one girl hiking but eventually I stopped and she continued on. I felt like I had learned a lot from my previous days on the trail but I will soon learn that pretty much every day there is a lesson to be learned.

The last mountain I had to climb today was Cowrock Mt., it goes completely straight up out of Tesnatee Gap. There was a nice trail Angel handing out fresh fruit and water, I had passed on the fruit....bad choice, the Orange could have given me a burst of energy....I did take a bottle of water.

Going straight up inclines, you think they will never end but eventually they do and usually get this fantastic view, this one didn't disappoint. Ill try to add photos later.

So my plan was to stay at Whitley Gap Shelter, I had forgotten this was the one that was 1.2 miles off the trail....ugghhh and straight down so basically all thAt hard work getting up Cowrock was being undone because I had to go the 1.2 to get to the shelter...downhill LoL! I must say though aside from the downhill issue and having g to go up it again tomorrow, this trail was a neat little trail....again these trails that are high in elevation remind me of the Smoky mountains because the shrubs are similar.

Whitley shelter is considered to be one of the better shelters to most who don't care about the thru hiker bubble and excitement. Because this shelter is over a mile off the trail most will not hike to it, they had rather take that mile and half and triple it to the next shelter....I didn't and needed up sharing the area with two brothers, one who couldn't be no more than 17 or 18 and the other who was maybe 20 along with a family friend who was from Britain, which I might add has already thru-hiked the year or two before, he was just out for some quiet hiking no big miles just ending up wherever he felt like for the day.

By 12:30am I felt like telling those boys where to take a hike, I had been trying to sleep since 8 (hiker midnight) and couldn't due to their loud talking and the wind kicking up. So by 12:30 I was ready to scream, these boys were suppose to be hiking over 15 miles the next day....well I doubt that!