Day 5 and 6

Day 5:

With only 5 miles to Neels gap and our cabin, we woke up eager to get going. We skipped breakfast as we knew we would be able to get a bunch of good food at the outfitter at the bottom of Blood Mountain. After a couple of miles, we began our ascent up the mountain and it began to rain. We shrugged it off and continued trudging on. After a while, I took off to hike at my own pace and told Louisa I would meet her at the shelter at the summit. Once I reached the top, I rested in the shelter to await Louisa. 

Blood Mountain shelter

Unfortunately, since it was such a foggy day, we were unable to see any of the scenic views from the summit. The descent was much tougher than the ascent since it was littered with large boulders that we had to hike on. To make matters worse, it was rainy and windy, so we had to be extra careful navigating the terrain. One thing I have found is that downhill walking is much harder on my knees. I bend my knees when stepping down off rocks as well as using my trekking poles, which helps to reduce the impact to my knees, but there is still a fair amount of strain. The pain is manageable and hasn't been getting any worse, so I think I'll be ok but I'm definitely looking for ways to reduce strain on my knees. 

Anyways, the pain I had and Louisa's pain in her feet and the rain and wind made for a grueling descent and we were both miserable. However, the day turned out to be a good one once we reached the outfitter. Mountain crossings in Neels gap offers a bunch of food for thru hikers to resupply with and we definitely took advantage. We both picked up a frozen pizza and snacks and soda and settled into our cabin. We showered up and brought our dirty laundry up to the main lodge where the owner washed and dried our clothes for us. We both rested up and went to bed early. 

Day 6:

We planned out our next week to make it to Hiawassee, GA and decided that day 6 would be a shorter day in terms of mileage. This gave us some time to resupply our hiking food at the outfitter and pick up some items I lost during the last week. I lost my knife and water purifier on day 4 :(

We also sent some items back home to help us save weight. Once we were done at the outfitter, we continued onto the trail. We took a quick lunch break soon after that. There were several beautiful lookouts we came across today and the weather was clear so I was able to get some good photos. 

The shelter we were going to stay at was 1.2 miles off the trail, so we decided to keep going and find a campsite along the trail. Every place we have stayed before had a pre built system for storing food at night (to keep bears out of it). This is the first night not at a place that has that or without the bear canister we rented (see day 4). I watched a video on YouTube on how to hang a bear bag PCT style. It took some time for me to figure it out, but I got our food hung properly after about 15 minutes of messing around. 

It's supposed to get down to 35 degrees tonight, so we are huddled up with our sleeping bag liners and coats on. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so we are looking forward to tomorrow's hike.