Dirk's Rambles

Today we walked our longest hike so far in our trip- 11 miles. We hiked 7 yesterday from Neal's Gap to the top of Wildcat Mountain. We stayed beside the trail last night and got up early to get a jump on the day since we were increasing our mileage.

The hike today was relatively easy except for a very rocky section a short distance from where we are staying tonite, which is a small camp area called Spaniard's Knob.

The panorama of the mountains around us has been spectacular every day. The mountains here have a smoky haze, much like the Smokies a little further north in North Carolina (NC).The shapes of some of the mountains are different- conical, some are sharply pointed, some are rounded like our mountains in PA. Being here for six days now, I am trying to absorb the beauty as much as possible. This part of Georgia is a hidden treasure that I was not aware of. The mountains seem to stretch as far as you can see in all directions. And it has been this way for 50 miles.

We haven't seen many of the people that we met in our first few days, like Colleen, Howdy, Austin, etc. They are probably in front of us but not by much.

We hope to continue to hike 11 miles each of the next two days to reach Hiawassee by Sunday. Our bodies are holding up fine so far. The pads on the balls of my feet are like leather right now. Have some minor blistering on the top of some of my toes that I covered with duct tape. Each morning we wake up excited, each night we go to bed tired, though Brad didn't sleep well last night.