Neels Gap to Dick's Creek Gap

Where to begin.... the first five days in Georgia sucked. Rain, high winds, cold temperatures.  Finally, on day six, we saw the sun and views from three mountains we climbed. To pick off from where we left off...

On our fourth morning, Trav and I set off early with a new friend. Her name is Lindsey (in the pics) and whose trail name is Sham Wow (she carries one with her at all times). She is from Denver. We made it in about a half mile and she realized shr forgot her cellphone. She turned back and Trav and I carried on. 11.5 miles to Low Gap Shelter. To describe our trek, one needs only watch the scene from Lord of The Rings when the Fellowship is trying to go over the Misty Mountains and Aragorn shouting "We need to get off the mountain!" High winds, rain pelting us in the face, freezing rain at one point, and fear of hypothermia had us moving at quite a pace to get to Low Gap Shelter.  Most hikers we knew were either staying put in their shelters or hiking a short distance back to Neels so they could have a dryer and a hot shower. For Trav and I.... it took us four hours to bring our core temperatures up back to normal. We stumbled into Low Gap to meet Pete, Jason, and Michael "Lover Boy". They took a zero and were nice and warm when we arrived soaked and chilled to the bone. We were worried about Lindsey earlier and I ran up two ridges to see if she was ok, to which I was unsuccessful. Luckily, about an hour and a half after we got to Low Gap, Sham Wow came stumbling in much like we did to the shelter. We had a nice stay at Low Gap and met Claire from Washington when she showed up cold and disheartened in the dark.

Day five brought us wet clothes and a now six person group heading 9.7 miles into Unicoi Gap and getting a shuttle to Hiawassee, Georgia. We got a motel room, ordered pizza, and did laundry. Oh, and warmed up.  We decided at Low Gap we would "slack pack" between Unicoi Gap and Dicks Creek Gap today. Slack packing is where you having someone drop you off in the morning and you leave most of your gear behind. All I had was a water filter, water, food, rain gear, and the trail guidebook. Hiawassee had a decent buffet for us and I drank a tall Dos Equis!

Today was beautiful.  We climbed three mountains and saw the sun for the first time! We climbed over 3,500 feet of elevation changed and descended even more. It was a long 16.7 mile day, but the light pack was nice. We bought groceries and ate a six inch sub from Subway and ate two Diuble Cheeseburgers from DQ. We are going to head out in the morning and hike from Dicks Creek Gap to Nantahala Outdoor Center in NC. Tomorrow, we will finish Georgia. One state almost done! It will take us five or six days to get to Nantahala with no resupplies. Looking forward to it. I might take a zero at NOC, but we will see. Trav will move on to make up for lost time later when he has to hop off the trail.

Looking forward to Let's Party catching up and more exciting times with all our friends! I'm especially excited to be out of Georgia. SCREW Georgia!

Cheers!

Two Kings