Somewhere on the Trail #2.

I know this is long over due, but here it is. Started of with a short stroll through the woods to gear up for the monster of the day for the next day. Blood Mountain! There is a small section of the trail where you need a bear canister if you camp in that 7 mile stretch. I had camped right before that so I had just over a 7 mile day to get into Neels Gap and get out of the bear canister requirement. Blood Mountain is no joke steep 1.5 miles up with a steep hard on the knees 2.4 miles down. And with the highest point in Georgia with whooping 4,457 feet high. Oi. And it’s the first in many of the 4,000 footers that I will be seeing on the trail.

Coming off of Blood Mountain a gal told me that I’m doing something amazing with my life. Even though Blood Mountain was hard and difficult the view coming down was amazing. Ended up camping behind Neels Gap and Mountain Crossing Outfitters for the night and pulled a zero the next day to do laundry, pack shake down, and going into town that night to skirt tstorm that they where calling for. With the next two days I pulled a almost 7 miler with a lot of ups and down and got to a stealth camp and tent set up before a small rain storm came through. Man I was freaking out, on a hill about 3,000 feet in elevation and calling for thunderstorms. And rain the next day. Short day in the misty wet clouds and made it to the next shelter before it got going early afternoon, though on the bright side the sun came out and graced us for several hours that night.

The next several days where mentally hard, from eyelash irritation to feeling like a failer and not getting into camp in time. Durning that time I did 8.1 miles on some of the hardest terrain in about 8 hrs and that’s with taking a 30 min break for some of the best trail magic. After that had another mentally down day and just want to come home and be done with the trail, during that day someone from home told me that I’m inspiring a lot of people with my determination. And up in till the day with the trail magic I had no appetite, no food cravings nothing, after that appetite/wanting to eat is slowly coming back. Hoping that a day off will help my body to fully bounce back at the stop 10-12 miles from the state border!!!! And just shy of 3% done

The Juicy Stuff: Elevation Gain: 9125. Elevation Loss: 8820. Steps: 146,100 on Trail. Total Miles: 48.6

Animals: Centipedes 15. Squirrels 11. Catapiller 1. Beatle 1. Butterfly 5