It rained much of the night but we woke to clouds and fog. We hit the trail early and missed quite a few views due to the fog. It actually didn’t rain at all the whole day, so we are pretty thankful. We found some nice views on Cowrock Mountain, then crossed into Neels Gap. There is a gear store right in the gap, and the trail actually goes through the building. For Northbounders, it is famous for helping them fix whatever gear issues they have, usually lightening their packs considerably. We didn’t need anything but we did have some sodas and grab some snacks for the end. We also got a free I’ve cream bar for being SoBos.
We went outside to eat lunch and Brown and the Highwaymen were walking up the road. They had spent the night in town and gotten a late start. We ate our snacks and lunch quickly, then got hiking with them, catching up on what each other had been up to. We hiked 16 more miles with them, over Blood Mountain, in the clouds. We’d heard about it forever as a really hard climb… But we crushed it because we are in great shape!
One more day.
We are all in the shelter talking about finishing the trail.
Figaro will probably turn out to be a bit of ragamuffin cat like that one!
Megan & Ryley, thank you so much for your wonderful blog,enjoyed every moment, the ups and the downs. 🙂