Yesterday morning we were dropped off at Unicoi Gap and hiked 11.2 miles to Addis Gap, which was a tent site (no shelter). It was a very warm day yesterday (finally) and the first day that I have worn short pants. Our mileage has picked up the past 3 days and we are all pretty comfortable in the 11 mile range right now. Our trail family (tramily) has come together nicely as we all enjoy each others company and we all seem to be very compatible in our hiking abilities – I feel fortunate to have met Cobweb Rose, Snapshot and Mountain Crusher on this journey.

Todays hike was only 5.5 miles long but started out with a steep one mile climb with a thousand feet of elevation gain, an equally steep drop and then another mountain climb. At our camp site last night we met a young lady from South Africa who is hiking the trail alone. She had such bad blisters that she hiked today with pink flip flops and promptly earned the trail name of “Pink Flop”. I felt really sorry for her but she appeared to be a strong hiker and was not deterred by her present condition.

We had planned a short hike today so that we could go into the town of Hiawassee to resupply and pick up a few things at a local outfitter. We had a great lunch at a local cafe and I ordered a pizza from the hotel tonight while I did laundry and tried to stay off my legs a few hours. We will head back to the trail tomorrow around noon for a short 5 mile hike and then resume our normal schedule on Sunday.

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