It was clouded in and grey when we got up but not raining as we headed next door for breakfast. Breakfast at the Top of Georgia comes with a printed sheet of the “local weather forecast for the Appalachian Trail”. Today, the forecast was: 100% chance of scattered thunderstorms. We put on our wet shoes then Thomas from the hostel gave us a lift the 1/2 mile to the trail and we were hiking by 8am.
The first thing we did was hike up and out of dick’s gap and (drumroll, please!) above the clouds!!! We checked out a Vista side trail and had a nice view to the east overlooking the valley. We hiked the “toughest 16 miles of Georgia” – dick’s gap to Unicoi gap – before 3pm. This included the whoop-de-whoops. Apparently, once you’ve hiked 2100 miles, three back to back 1000ft climbs only made my radar as “whoop-de-whoops”. So, I guess we’re in hiking shape then??
After Unicoi gap we hiked another 14 miles to finish our day at Low Gap, 43 miles from the end! From around 4pm the 6pm we were listening to some pretty ominous thunder, and we were walking pretty quickly to try to beat the rain. Luckily, the last 4-5 miles of our day was really easy road grade trail. We missed the rain, though – we got to the shelter and the storm just kind of passed us by. We’re sharing a shelter with a flip-flopper named No Hurry, and 2 section hikers from New Hampshire.
Finally you guys are in shape!