After leaving Neel’s Gap we headed back into the woods to make more miles. With clean laundry, showers and stomachs full of pizza we were ready to crush it. We have been hiking an average of 7 miles a day, its been slow at the beginning as we were are trying to get our trail legs.
The views have been great and hiking has been tough, but we are still have an awesome time. It’s been great trying to get into the grove of hiking and meeting our fellow hikers as we are all on the same journey. We have already met a bunch of trail angels that have helped us so much along our adventure. They have helped with rides, food, advice and encouragement to keep going.
In Hogpen Gap we were treated with incredible trail magic of soup, rice, fruit, veggies, cookies, homemade brownies, candy, fresh water, coffee, tea, pops and loads more. They had chairs to relax in and blankets to stay warm and great conversation. They even prayed over us before we headed back onto trail.
Then we ran into Leapfrog Cafe in Unicoi Gap that gave us a bunch of awesome chili to have for supper as well fresh fruit. We ate amazing that night next to our warm fire with an incredible view of the mountains. The evening was amazing but when we woke up the next morning our attitudes changed a little.
We woke up to everything soaked, it had rained all night. And our bear hang was so good, we couldn’t even get it down. It sounds funny, but we were worried for a minute that we were going to have to leave it. At the realization that we were running out of options, Doreen just started hanging on the rope and flinging the food everywhere until it finally came down. Things were a little dented, but we were relieved to have our food back and headed up the trail in the rain.
We hiked the first few miles in our Walmart ponchos, until the rain let up and the sun came out.