Days 10-11

Day 10

Deep gap to bearpen gap

13.9 miles, mile 98.8

We had a bit of a later start today because our shuttle driver had another ride earlier and couldn’t grab us until 10am, and it was 45 minutes back to the trailhead. This guy is awesome, his name is Jason and he has a 9 year old daughter who I met when he gave us a ride for the first time on day 4, and she was apparently asking about me since. We had high hopes because people said that standing indian mountain had amazing views, and to be honest, we were a bit let down by the hype. The good thing is the terrain was not hard at all, tons of switchbacks and very gradual up and down, which was amazing after laying in bed all day yesterday. These 13.9 miles didn’t feel very difficult today. I met a man from ‘the big island” and he very much stood out to me due to the lack of shoes. We are the only ones at our tentsite again tonight, our food is hung, let’s hope for no more bear visitors!

Day 11

Bearpen gap to winding stair gap

10.6 miles, mile 109.4

Yay for no bears! Not yay for no sleep because I was listening for bears! When I got out of my tent this morning the sky was very dark and some thunder was going in the distance so I said to kev that we should probably pack up sooner rather than later. Just as I said that the sky opened up and absolutely soaked my tent before I could put it away. I need to take that out and let it dry tonight, we are in a hotel in Franklin. Today was a bit shorter mileage wise and mostly all downhill except for two very steep sections. The first steep section was up Albert mountain where the 100 mile marker for the trail is. We had absolutely amazing views up there. Then it was pretty uneventful until we came across a group of three hikers who seemed to have formed their own little group and they were nice to talk to for a bit while we all ate lunch. We continued on and it got pretty hot throughout the day. I am very much so looking forward to getting ice cream at the grocery store when our laundry is done. Around 2 we soaked our feet in a stream because we still had some time to kill before our shuttle driver came to pick us up at 3. When we walked down into winding stair gap, there was our first snack trail magic! And even better that the man was originally from Hudson, NH. Small world. He was nice to talk to and gave us some clementines which tasted wonderful after granola bars all day. Next big stop is Fontana Dam, right before the smokies! We should get there in about 3 1/2 days. It is about 55 miles from us right now.