Day 2: 4/4/16

Today was a bit rough… I think we’ve realized that we still need to get our hiking legs under us.

After breaking down camp, and eating breakfast (homemade granola for Alex, oatmeal for Casey) ,  we were hiking by about 10 after 8. Almost immediately,  Casey started having some foot troubles. She tried to ace bandage it,  but that just made it worse,  so we just slowed down a bit and took it easy.

It was a beautiful morning,  a carry over from the day before. We headed mostly downhill for about a mile to three forks, where we crossed a footbridge then began the hike uphill again.  It wasn’t long before we had to take off a layer,  as the late morning sun really started to warm things up.

We briefly stopped at high tower gap around 11 and had an early lunch… more tuna wraps. Word to the wise… the garlic and herb tuna packets have more calories than the jalapeño packets. After lunch was a steep climb then a gradual decent into horse gap. We rested up for a few minutes,  chatted with a few other hikers,  then began the accent up Sassafras mountain.

We do quite a bit of hiking,  but for some reason this climb took quite a bit of effort. It was made even more strenuous by the immediate decent into cooper’s gap, then another climb up Justus mountain. Also,  there are no water sources from just before Hightower gap all the way to Justus Creek… so if we did it again we would’ve filled up before that section.

When we finally arrived at Justus Creek,  we were tired, hungry,  and sore. The creek was like a little oasis,  other hikers just lounging around,  refilling water abs eating snacks.  Wet joined in,  found ourselves a nice little piece of real estate,  and recharged for a while.  Even though we only had another 1.5 miles or so to the planned stop for the day,  we needed that break.

We considered staying near the Gooch shelter, but by the time we arrived all the tent spots were taken up.  We decided to push forward a bit to see if we’d come across a site that wasn’t in the guidebook.  And we got lucky… about a half mile beyond the shelter we found a little spotted just off the trail.

For dinner,  we rehydrated one of the homemade meals that we had made months ago… some lasagna… and it was good!

Overall,  we covered 13.2 miles today.  We’ve got a bit of a haul ahead of us tomorrow,  about 16 miles,  including a hike over blood mountain,  the tallest yet.  Time for a good nights sleep,  and here’s hoping our feet will hold up.