The sound of drizzle on the tent woke me up earlier that we’d been up so far along this trip. It motivated us to pack up camp and get on the trail before the weather turned worse, but it turned out that was all the rain in store for the day and we stayed dry. We’d shifted to pop-tart breakfasts, not as tasty but much faster than boiling water for oatmeal and we were one of the first groups out of camp this time.
The first five miles of the trail were as nice as we could have asked for, a smooth path with gentle climbs and descents. There were even sections that were lovely tunnels of foliage, reminding me that yesterday was the first day of spring. Through this easy terrain we were managing ~2 mph even with the injuries.
After lunch, life got a lot harder. The trail turned into a narrow path that was often scattered with a rock garden that required a lot of scrambling.
Eventually we came to Blue Mountain Shelter, made use of the privy and chatted with the folks staying there. It is an exposed campsite on top of a ridge and the wind was already whipping around the shelter, I expect it was a cold night up there. It was a bit further to summit Blue Mountain and then it was all downhill to Unicoi Gap.
This descent was reminiscent of the Blood Mountain descent, rocky, steep, and never ending – we were were headed down 1,100 ft over 1.5 miles. Even once we could see the road we were still a couple hundred feet above it for a long time. To make it worse, we could see a group of folks in the parking lot handing out fruit, water, and cookies to thru-hikers but it seemed to take forever to get there. Eventually we turned the last corner, Kacy saw her last double blaze, and we were off the trail.
Our friend Rabbit was hanging around the gap to give rides to folks headed to Helen or Hiawassee for the night. He had been section hiking from the falls to Unicoi but had thrown his back out after the St. Patrick’s Day party and used the rest of his vacation to be trail magic in the area. He took us in to Helen, all the way to the Hampton Inn where we had booked a room, we’d made great time – getting there by 3 pm.
After a shower and some relaxing we headed out to Big Daddy’s Tavern for dinner, it was only a mile up the road but Kacy wasn’t about to walk any further than she absolutely had to so we grabbed the local taxi. The tavern had Bell’s Flamingo Flight on tap and great food to satisfy post-hike hunger.
It’s a bittersweet day. The food, hotel, and down time are great. Kacy is definitely a bit injured and while she’s made it this far I feel bad dragging her along the trail. I will miss her when she’s gone, we’ve had some great laughs and it’s harder to be motivated hiking alone.
Day 7 Mileage: 9.7 mi [Low Gap -> Unicoi Gap]
Total Mileage: 60.8 mi
Loved catching up with your travels when I got home today! congratulations Kacy on your week on the AT… Hope to meet you in Damascus at Trail Days and hike on Paul one foot in front of the other. Looking forward to the next update. 🙂