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Mile: 42.6 | Blue Mountain Shelter had views worth the climb — and mice bold enough to run across my head at 3 a.m. Between the duct tape that failed my blisters, the freezing nights, and the news of Dragon’s hurt ankle, it was a day of highs and lows.
We left earlier, finally, at around 9am. Whisperer and I hit about 2.5 miles per hour for the majority of the day. Until the last 1.6 miles we were cruising! We made it to Blue Mountain Shelter by noon, earlier than expected but after the day before we felt like small miles was a good idea. We ate lunch with Ohm, 'Racha, Hott Dogg (formerly Snuggles), Pioneer, Turbo, and some other friendly faces. Ohm and 'Racha moved on to Unicoi Gap to get E-Dog back! Turbo, Hott Dogg, and Pioneer went on the 'the Cheese Factory' campsite (there was apparently no cheese).
The view from the shelter was beautiful!
The sun stayed out until we headed to bed. We had to hang our bear bags for the first time, there weren't any bear boxes.
Whisperer and I hung out and had two dinners. We taped up our blisters. I ran out of Leuko Tape, which is what I usually use for blisters, so I tried duct tape. It didn't work, for the record.
We finally had good cell service for a while. So I caught up with some family and friends back home. I got nervous when I still hadn't heard from Dragon. But she finally got in contact with me late in the afternoon. She let me know that she made it to Tesnate Gap, where she camped with Maverick and Buck '99 safely. She had to get a shuttle into Hiawassee from there because of a hurt ankle. She stayed there and took some zeroes. I felt so bad, but so glad she was safe!
The nights continued to get colder and my uninsulated sleeping pad continued to feel less and less comfortable. I realized that I needed to get an insulated sleeping pad in order to stay safely warm through the rest of spring. Since I had good enough service, I ordered the insulated version of my sleeping pad (supposedly a 4.4R value) to Hiawassee.
We looked up lodging in Hiawassee and thought we found a great deal at the Holiday Inn express. I called and confirmed that they were offering $104.99 for 2 nights total. That would make it $52 a night... a good deal when split amongst two people! The woman at the hotel confirmed the price and I confirmed twice that was the total, all I would pay for two nights. It seemed like a good deal... more on this later.
Craving a beer and a burger, I went to bed early. At 3am Whisperer woke me up, frantic. He shined his headlamp (on the red I might add...) up on my pack. On my hip belt pockets were two mice trying eat through my mesh pocket! They just stared at me! I jumped up quickly and shook them off my pack, realizing that I had forgotten to take some empty granola bar wrappers out of the pockets. They left a small hole but nothing major. We settled back into our sleeping bags and not 5 minutes later I felt a small animal run across my head. The mouse was back for its revenge... luckily it did no more damage. Soon after, the rain was back...