Day 4
Today was a difficult day. After showers, laundry, and a resupply we hoped to make it to a town for Danny’s birthday. We pushed for 11.4 miles and boy oh boy did we regret it. Today’s mental challenge was the gnats. Since it was a beautiful day, all the gnats hatched and swarmed around us as we climbed. Continuously swatting hitting gnats as you walk up a mountain can be a bit difficult. Our four day trek had now turned into a 1.5 day trek with a zero in Hiawassee Georgia to let our muscles relax and recover. We had underestimated the amount of physical stress on our bodies and were not able to keep up with the pace Simon had been moving. Trying to keep up with him was going to destroy our bodies. When we arrived at camp for the night, we met Robert now deemed Lightning for his hiking speed. Robert has the aura and characteristics of the mighty and all knowing, Ole’ Gandalf. As Lady Poles would say, we met a “cool cat”. By the time we got to the cables we could use to hand our bear bags, they were completely full. As night fell around us, we quickly tried to find a branch to hang our bear bag on. Now stood in the dark with my head lamp chucking bags of rocks at trees, I thought to myself what a strange way we were choosing to live. Finally Danny lobs the bag over and sets both of our bags
perfectly. As we’re finishing up, Mouse (a fellow thruhiker) asks where the bear cables were located to now an almost empty camp due to the darkness. We respond from our tent, “the cables are full! You have to hang it from a tree” (Danny and I may or may not have taken the only tree within 200 ft of camp) She then replies in contemplation, “how bad would it be to sleep with my food?” Complete silence falls over camp. We pray to this day that she found another tree...
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