I don’t know if I mentioned it but the climb out of the campsite that morning was straight up. All I could think of was the pain I felt for the last two days. As I took my first step up the hill I could not believe it. The pain I had been feeling for the last two days was reduced significantly. For the next 10 minutes I didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to jinx myself but the knee felt better. As we gained elevation we finally made it to the shelter where we dumped the extra food in the bear box for a lucky hiker to find. As we were getting ready to continue the hike, our new found friends we met earlier on the trail came bopping down the trail towards us so we stopped and chatted with them. We ended up hiking and talking with them over the next five miles and had some beautiful scenic overlooks along the way. At some point during the day they told us they were staying at a hostel that night and invited us to go with them. We accepted the invite and were glad we would be getting a hot shower that night. Also during the day we chatted about our trail names because everyone on the trail has a trail name. Mine ended up being Captain America and my wife’s was Freedom. Our friends trail names were Trail Taco and Patriot Mom. Your trail name is usually related to something you did or where you came from. Most of the time its a great story which is always a fun thing to talk about around the campfire. My knee got better as the day went on and I finally started to get my hiker legs underneath me. We had arranged to be picked up by the shuttle at Woody Gap as the hostel was less than a mile from there. This was a neat little hostel as washing your clothes and a hot fresh meal was included in the price. The owners were nice and were experts on the AT Trail. We slept in bunk beds this night and I really didn’t sleep too well but I was clean and warm so I had no complaints. I was up early and was the first one at the coffee pot. The coffee was good as was the breakfast, but I was ready to get back on the trail. As soon as we were done, we told our friends goodbye as they were leaving to go home this day and we jumped in the shuttle and headed for the trail head at Woody Gap. We hiked all day headed for Jarrard Gap to camp. My knee was still feeling good so we were doing better than any days before. Even though we were only doing about 5-6 miles per day, it was a good pace for us as we were just trying to get a feel for the AT. We made it to Jarrard Gap and set up camp. We made it in a little early to camp so we had a relaxed evening setting up our gear. As the evening went on we ended up with 7 more people in our campsite. We ended up around a fire with Rooster, Jack Rabbit and Quill. They were all great people with such diverse and interesting backgrounds and we had great time hanging out that night. We eventually crashed for the night and woke up a little earlier than usual. This day would be our last on the trail and would be a tough hike. We had to go over Blood Mountain which is the second highest mountain in Georgia. It turned out to be a great hike as we ran in to our new friends at the top of Blood Mountain. We got some great views and got a picture of us with our friends with great views behind us. Need Gap waited for us at at the bottom of Blood Mountain. This is the only place on the trail where the trail runs through a building. The building is an outdoor gear store that has the latest and greatest gear and the employees know everything you ever wanted to know about the gear. We hung out here with our buddies until they hit the trail for some more hiking and then our shuttle service picked us up. They brought us to our hotel where we grabbed a hot shower and went to a local brewery for some cold beer and greasy food. Later back at the hotel we packed our gear and got ready for our drive back home. Before we hit the rack we were already missing the trail and the carefree life we led for the last 5 days. Even though we severely underestimated the difficulty of the AT we came to love it and by the last day we had our hiking legs under us and were in hiking shape. On the ride back to BR we stayed in Tuscaloosa and hit another brewery ( Black Warrior Brewery)and just hung out in the downtown area. I really liked this town and wouldn’t mind stopping there again. We made it to BR the next day and were glad to be , but we’ve already started to plan our next hike on the AT, but this time we will be better prepared and hopefully we can get 7-8 days on the trail.
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