Thursday, May 26th

Unicoi Gap (52.5 mi) to Dick’s Creek Gap (69.2 mi)

Hiking Miles: 16.7 mi

Total Ascent: 4,773.3 ft

Total Descent: 5,081.7 ft

Total Grade: 587.6 ft/mi

Steps: 41,465

It was just an okay night’s sleep for me as I experienced some terrific pain in my second and third toes on my right foot. This was caused by the constant wetness in my shoes (and kicking rocks a number of times) forming blisters under the toe nails (very sensitive!). I wrapped bandaids on them, put toe liner socks over that, and finally my Darn Tough socks to pad and protect them as much as possible.

I had coffee, instant breakfast, and a Cliff bar for breakfast in the dining area. Stevie and I then selected 2 day-packs from Lisa before boarding the shuttle that took us back to the trail head for our “slack pack” hike. The topic everyone was talking about last evening and this morning was the bear activity between the Standing Indian Shelter (ahead of us) and the Great Smokey Mountains. It got us thinking that now would be the right time to purchase a bear can before it was too late. 

We hiked from 8:28 am to 3:15 pm today (it poured pretty much all day) where we finished up at Dick’s Creek. That’s 4 days in a row that we hiked in the rain, and we joked about it being just another day in paradise! I honestly don’t mind rain, particularly in warmer temps, but it has wreaked havoc on my feet, and my already severely blistered toes.

It was rather ironic that our southern trail names (Gator and Croc), that we gave each other prior to starting this section, was somewhat fitting. After all, if alligators and crocodiles habitate in water, wouldn’t they naturally love the rain?

While on trail, Stevie stopped and talked with two girls named “Ink” & “Glow”, who also were hiking Northbound. When I caught up with them, the ongoing topic of discussion was “bears”, so the word spreads universally. The mountains were a bit tough today even with slack packing. My body felt better (energy wise) after I had eaten a few tuna wraps and a Pop Tart (calories!) for lunch.

The slight pain I felt in my lower back subsided (less weight to carry), and it was fun running fast without my pack. However, I did limit my running today due to it being wet and slippery (puddles & rocks).

We walked from Dick’s Creek Gap back to ATB along the road and during that moment it had stopped raining. We took showers, got dressed in dry clothes and waited for the shuttle to take up back into Hiawassee for dinner. As we were waiting, the skies opened up again and we got more rain.

The brewery that we originally wanted to try was closed so we decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant. We sat with two other hikers, David and Larry, who were also staying at the hostel. When we returned, I sat in the lounge area and had some coffee and wrote in my journal while I waited for my laundry to dry. Also during that time, Stevie and I talked to a cool hiker whose trail name was “Mailman”. He was staying at the hostel, but what was really neat was that he rented the colorfully decorated van for the evening (actually for the two nights that we were there). Stevie asked if he could see what it looked like inside and Mailman said of course and showed it to us.