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<\/a><\/p>\nThe next day was hard to predict. There was a slight chance of rain and thunderstorms all day, and I didn’t want to put myself on top of Tray Mountain in a thunderstorm, so I had to plan around that. At\u00a0Unicoi Gap\u00a0<\/strong>I had another instance of trail magic. There was a church group out doing some bbq and they even had some fruit! I took a banana with me on the trail and had it for breakfast the next day. It was all really nice, but once the proselytizing started I thanked them for the food and headed on.<\/p>\n That night I camped at an old cheese factory that had been abandoned since the 18oo’s. The only sign of a past building was a road that went through the area, Tray mountain road I believe. The weather was really nice all day, and there wasn’t a drop of rain. That changed.<\/p>\n The rain started as a light drizzle at about 4 am. It only grew stronger and stronger. By the time I needed to get going it was a complete downpour. I was soaked. Everything inside my tent stayed relatively dry, but I think I could have pitched my tent in a much better direction. I learned that if my head or feet are pointed towards the wind, I should be ok, but if a vestibule is getting the brute force of the wind, I will get wet. The things you learn. All in all, it was fine, but I needed to stay in a shelter the next night.<\/p>\n Rather than have a long 13 mile day after a night of rain, I decided to call it\u00a0just 3 miles before Dicks Creek Gap. This was a good choice because I was going to need a reservation at Top of Georgia Hostel. I was able to call at Deep Gap shelter. I got an awesome nights sleep that night, despite people reporting sounds of mice running around the shelter. I had ear plugs so that helped.<\/p>\n Here’s us in our scrubs they give us.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nThis morning I took a nice stroll through 3 miles of beautiful forest and came to TOG hostel near 10:30. This gave me plenty of time to take a shower, get my laundry done, and go into town with some friends. Lunch was amazing! I had a spicy blue cheese burger with tater tots and a side salad. After all that we went to Ingles, essentially Safeway. There I resupplied all my food that I’ll need until Franklin, NC. The plan tonight is to have some stir fry. It’s hard to get veggies on the trail, so it seemed like a good choice. I’ll be sharing with Brittany from South Dakota and Katrin from Berlin. We all started the same day and seem to have a similar daily pace. It seems our paths will meet many a times.<\/p>\n