Day 6

Bull Gap Campsite to Whitley Gap Shelter 6.6 miles – AT mile 38

Card of the day – Queen of Cups

After the joys of the night before we all knew that today would not be a repeat.  I was woken by lightning at 5am, and Underhill was right about two short blasts of rain through the night.  Having said that it was the Best nights sleep yet.

We opted to break camp with out breakfast to try and get on the trail before the rain started, we figure we would head to Whitley Gap Shelter for a late breakfast and then on to Low Gap.

We set off into the clouds all happy and content, even through the first up hill was a leg killer, we marched on.  Then came the rain, not to hard at first but soon followed by thunder and lightning, and more rain and then pop!  Crap that felt close!

We finally got to the sign for the shelter and it was 1.2 off trail!  I could have cried, but Low Gap was 5 miles up the road and we had not had breakfast or coffee!  As a group we agreed to hit the shelter.

We got there. It had a few familiar faces and some new.  They were sitting out the rain, and we made food.

We were going no further today.  The 1.2 back to the trail and then the 5 to the next shelter felt like to much.

And then the rain stopped!

And I lit a fire (thank you baby bell)

A good afternoon and evening was had as we sat by the fire with 2 hikers, a father and son on a spring break hike, chatting about thru hiking, how we prepared and how it’s been going.

We learnt some valuable lessons.  If you head out into the rain with out breakfast, make sure you have plenty of granola bars to hand.

If you head out to a shelter in said rain, be sure of it’s location and how far off trail it is.

I think we all agreed it was the right thing to have done, and it turned out to be a good day in the end!