Day 7 – Low Gap Shelter to Unicoi Gap

Up at 7:00. Partly sunny, with a high near 66. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph.

Didn’t rain after all last night. Pop-Tarts and tea for breakfast.

Packed up and headed out at 8:30. Mike stopped for water at .25 miles. Humid today!

Rained for about 15 minutes at 10:00. Umbrella works but need to reconfigure it now that I’m wearing my pack differently. Umbrella is too low and leans forward.

Made Blue Mountain shelter at 12:15 and 7.58 miles. Last mile up was very tough. Steep, big rocks, slick from rain this morning. 

We took a break for about an hour and I had a snack. I called Dana and chatted for a while. Walked .1 miles downhill to refill water. Here is how to use a leaf and a rock to hack a stream. Look close!

Left shelter at 1:30 and made it to Unicoi at 2:35. Grabbed a coke at Trail Magic in Unicoi Gap. Bill from Green Dragon Hostel picked us up right away.

Got to Green Dragon Hostel and chatted with a lot of familiar faces, showered, unpacked. Shuttled to Hiawassee outfitter and grocery store at 4:00. Got one dehydrated meal and some snacks. Probably too much food. 

Did some basic planning and looks like Franklin next Friday or Saturday. Will need to resupply Wednesday or Thursday. Assumes my resupply box is at Around The Bend hostel on Monday, April 22.

Shuttled over to Hiawassee Brewery at 5:15 for group dinner. 

Back to Green Dragon at 8:00. Uploaded day 5 and 6 blogs. Got electronics charging and crawled into bunk at 9:15. Worked on day 7 blog and some route planning for the next week. 

Lost 4 pounds this week…down to 215 pounds.

Technical Notes:

• Pop-Tarts x2 400
• Tea 0 
• Snickers 250
• Trail mix 270
• Electrolyte x 2  50
• Coke 130
• Cider x 2  520
• Bacon x 1.5 200
• Double cheeseburger 800
• Fries 400
• Water 4 liters
• Miles 10.57
• Time 6:00
• Elevation gain 1950
• Calories consumed 3300
• Calories burned 4500