Waking up the morning after a party is always a little slow and we weren’t the only ones meandering out of camp around 10 am. The wooded gap kept the wind at bay overnight but retained the cold long into the morning.
Today was a general climb with one long downhill halfway through after crossing Big Cedar Mountain. Not an easy day but definitely some of the best views so far.
We’ve started regularly leap frogging the same groups of people at rest breaks. There’s a few retirees, a dad and his 12 yr old son, a girl from Wisconsin, and a girl from NorCal that we seem to be keeping pace with.
Woody Gap was the most established road crossing we’d encountered so far with picnic tables, trash cans, and pit toilets. About halfway through our planned distance we were going to have lunch there but the wind must’ve been around 20 mph and of course it was cold. We made use of the toilets, chatted with some of the other hikers paused there, and kept on moving.
Lunch finally happened on a sunny rock outcropping sheltered from the wind, the warmest spot we could find to hang out for half an hour and the view was great too. Unfortunately, Kacy’s blisters continued to get worse despite the tape and shortly after lunch her right knee gave out. She popped a couple ibuprofen, fashioned a make-shift knee brace out of her leggings and we kept going, albeit slowly.
We weren’t anywhere near a spot where she could get off the trail if he knee wasn’t better in the morning, in fact the next day we were supposed to climb the highest point on the trail in Georgia – Blood Mountain. Originally we were going to stop at Lance Creek, a ~7 mile day total. However, by the time we rolled into Lance Creek the ibuprofen was working full force and Kacy decided to push on another 2 miles to Jarrard Gap, so that the next day was as short as possible (~5 miles).
Initially when we reached Jarrard Gap we were disheartened because it was nearly as windy and miserable as Woody Gap. Luckily, there was an abandoned road along the sheltered side of the hill and we could see some folks had already pitched tents there. A few yards down the road the wind was gone, the sun was shining, and it was actually warm. It was a great place to end the day and enjoy our Thai Noodle Miso Soup dinner.
Tomorrow is the day we planned to split a cabin with Lux and Katy, but having not seen them since the morning of day 2 I’m not sure if that’s still their plan.
Day 4 Mileage: 9.2 mi [Gooch Gap -> Jarrard Gap]
Total Mileage: 34.6 mi