Neel Gap - Dicks creek

Day 4

Mileage 16ish

I woke up in a cloud and can't see 3 feet in front of me!

Ankle is less swollen and barely bruised this morning!

Today was really cool weather all morning.  Hiking in and out of clouds and rolling fog.  I was hiking through giant rhododendron bushes!   That being said it also rained lightly all morning.

Got to first shelter by 1230.  Took an hour lunch and soaked my ankle in a stream.

My legs felt good so I kept on hiking.  Made it to the blue mountain shelter at 4!

It fucking poured.  I'm wet.  My whole life is wet. The shelter was too full already.  I set my tent up in a new record 3 minutes...

Tonight I eat two dinners. 


Day 5

Its 19 miles to dicks creek.  I'm thinking i do 12-15 today and make tomorrow a nero and rest up.

It stopped raining this morning.  But its windy and cold.  I did wake up to an amazing sunrise though.


My whole life is still wet.  I put my bag and some clothes out to dry.  My sleeping bag stayed dry and I do have enough dry clothes.

Ended up hiking 15.5 today and it was beautiful all day!  Halfway through the morning I took my ankle brace off and it felt normal all day!

My right knee and left achilles were tight most of the morning and loosened up as the day went on.

Got into camp and saw some familiar faces and hung out around the fire and talked until 8pm! (Thats super late)

Really need to figure out how to get more calories.  I keep waking up hungry.  Going to resupply tomorrow and see if 4000 calories is better than the 3300 to 3500 I have been eating.


Made it to Dick's creek and shuttled into town.  While I got here early, I still think staying the night is a good idea to rest my legs.

Today is my first nero and I'm looking forward to doing laundry! I'm just the nastiest right now.

--Strider