I wanna start by saying Kayla is a beast and I wouldn't be this far without her motivation. She tames mountains without even sweating and her long legs breeze down them just as easy. I'm glad we are experiencing this journey together.
Today was a pretty eventful day! But let's start with last night. Last night was a rough night. Yesterday it rained all day and night so we had an easy day and did 8 ish miles and hung out at shelter trying to stay dry and warm... Fail and fail we were cold and wet all day and guess what it dropped into 40s last night with 10-15 mph winds. That combo made for a chilly night. We slept in thermal pants, shirt, socks, jacket, rain jacket and hat in a sleeping bag and it was still roughhhhh. We were up all night. We woke up at 620 today and timed packing up camp and we were hiking by 7. First we did an easier 2 mile hike to unico gap and changed gear for the first out of 10 times for the day. The weather here was crazy today. It was super windy in the 50s so we were cold cause we were wet. It would rain off and on all day so we had to keep switching gear. Climb a mountain in rain gear and then pouring sweat so switch gear so we wouldn't get clothes we were wearing wet. But then we would freeze cause wind Lol. This cycle repeated allllll day. Today we hiked the biggest section of elevation in Georgia. One monster of a mountain we climbed is tray mountian. I will post pic below of view. We did a wopping 19¹/² miles today. The last three of it really went down hill literally. A hail storm hit for awhile out of no where and we shouldn't of tried to do that many miles only on day 5. Reason we tried is we were feeling good in morning and we kept running into packs of people and campsites get taken quick anything past 3 in afternoon. So we decided to push to dicks creek gap and try and hitch hike to close town to get resupply on food and fuel for stove. Once we made it there around 430 our legs were shot and a guy we camped with day before helped us hitch hike to town. It was Kayla's and I first time hitch hiking and the people that gave us a ride were awesome!! The guy we camped with and hitch hiked with name is Patrick and trail name star gazer. Patrick is a jack of all trades and has been all around the US with some great stories. First thing we did was go get some fast food haha I destroyed 12 bucks worth and was still hungry. Then all three of us went to a cheap motel and got rooms. The price wasn't bad and we got a hiker discount. Right now we have room destroyed Lol we have gear everywhere drying and the heater on blast. We hung out and talked to Patrick for awhile tonight and now about to go to bed. For plans tomorrow we don't know yet. We might take it easy depending on how legs feel.
Some side notes
Saw ferrel pigs today
Trekking poles saved us today
Wind plus cold plus wet = death
A greasy burger can make you feel 100 percent better
Climbing up mountains kills calfs and hard on cardio. Going down is easy on cardio but destroys feet, knees and hips.
Meeting awesome people on trail is one of best parts
