Day 5 on the Appalachian trail

Whitley Gap to Blue Mt. Shelter - Mile 68.4 - Apr 21_st, 2018

Aaahhh, woke to a family of owls cackling and hooting at 5am this morning....it was awesome! I can't believe how windy it is, I heard there is more rain coming in and now has been upgraded to thunderstorms possible not sure what this will mean. Well I got up, got my pack loaded just grabbing a bite to eat...bacon jerky on a small wrap and water. I have been eating kind caramel nut bars and cliff bars in between meals to help keep protein going. I have also been eating these Gatorade chews for energy, they seem to help a little bit.

The two guys that were up all night are now being presented with me packing my stuff in my bag(which is a little loud due to my bag liner)....they barely moved an inch. The younger brother who is on my out there for a few days to hang out with the one full of energy ended up not sleeping in his tent near me but in the shelter in his sleeping bag....cross ways. The older brother had his hammock crossways in the shelter above the other brother...they were a funny site. I did try to be as quiet as I could and got on out of there. Bag up hill I go, it is always a routine that once I hit the trail I start saying my prayers for the day. I'm trudging along praying and dreading this uphill climb where out of nowhere I hear my grandfather "Daddy-O" say what he would always say......"it ain't nothing but a thang". I stopped and said you know what...thanks Daddy-O you're right...it ain't nothing but a thang..put one foot in front of the other and get it done...so I did! I was finally able to get a signal to face time Joe....thAt was soooo nice but bittersweet.

Finally back on the trail and realized today I was going to have to pull 12.7 miles to get to the shelter on top of Blue Mountain but for the most part todAy shouldn't have that many steep inclines so I knew it was doable. I met some cool people along the way...these two older gentleman. One of them named "Spot" was thru-hiking....AGAIN for the sixth time he said he had attempted 8 times and if that 8 this would be number 6. My jaw dropped, I couldn't believe it, he was so nice to giving me pointers on how to take these really steep inclines without it completely wearing me down. I flip flopped with them most of the day (meaning we would pass each other back and forth). By the time I got to 11 miles I was done...really 10 miles is it for me, anything past 10 makes me miserable but I know i have to keep pushing on. These last two miles were over rock slides and roots which were straight up once again. It's like the last few miles they really sock it to ya to make it to these shelters. I could have stopped at Low Gap but then I would have been sitting there bored all day waiting the sun to go down plus I knew I wanted to make it to the Blue Mt Shelter so I would be closer to safety once the storms come in tomorrow.

Last water source or the water source for the shelter was just a trickle over some rocks and leaves luckily I have a bag that can scoop water but I later realized I didn't do so well and dirty water got mixed in my good water.

As I was hiking throughout the day Joe was trying to keep me up to date on my weather situation. I finally had to make a decision to get a shuttle off the mountain the next day and made reservations to stay at the top of ga hostel. Here I am with my credit card out making reservations right on the trail wondering if this was the best thing to do and with the wind blowing me around I soon realized yes it was.

Finally made it to the shelter only to learn there was a troop of boy scouts up there for the night, one side says cool for them but the other side says great....another sleepless night, HA!

After finally choosing a spot to put my tent I gat unpacked, it's a total ritual everyday...unpack and toss everything in tent, eat, hang food bag, privy, bandage and change into sleep clothes. In the mornings: privy, change into hike clothes, pack everything up, eat , privy then wAter refill if needed.

This shelter had the most horrible cell signal, I couldn't get in touch with Joe for nothing. It would literally take 10 mins to send one message and I found out from others that wind gust were picking up and some could be up to 60mile an hour.

After pulling almost 13 miles I was so disgusted with myself, here I was out here busting my rear once again when I told myself I wasn't going to do that but the problem you run into is this: bad weather and the shelters are spaced apart just say 10miles or so, they are scattered. You may have shelters that are anywhere from 4 miles apart to 12 miles apart but you have all these stealth campsites that would be great if you're not alone or don't mind being a sitting duck for curious bears.....I did mind. So there is a lot to consider when out hiking long distance, I didn't think I would mind stealth camping until I got out there and was put in the situation.

Well after laying there in my tent for 3hrs dying to sleep I think I finally fell asleep around 10. The atmosphere pressure was so strong that my eyes hurt to even touch them, it was so crazy, I've only had that happen maybe once before. Everyone that was hiking thru made the decision to take a Nero and then a zero at the top of Ga hostel we just had to make it down the mountain to the pickup spot. I was making plans to scale back my mileage the rest of the week, Joe was doing the same at home (I can't say enough how awesome he has been in helping me on this journey)! Basically I was going to wait out these thunderstorms and hike only about 4-8 miles each day which were going to suck somewhat because that would leave me pittling around most of the days awaiting on nightfall the rest of the week...alone or I could be home with my family....which do you think i chose....family.