Hiking Trail Journals

Appalachian Trail 2003 - Chelsea's Journals

Entry #15 - April 5, 2003

8:50 PM - Today was a good day - probably the best day yet. It didn't start out too good though. I slept next to the wall in the shelter and was listening to the mice whooping it up right next to me all night. It sounded like they were crawling all over my Thermarest. Who knows. Then they were dropping all kinds of junk from the ceiling on me. All the while, Andy was peacefully snoring away, tucked out of reach of the mice. Eventually morning came, Thank God, but we woke to a Thunderstorm - the day was not looking good.

We took our time getting ready and started hiking in the rain at about 9:00 AM. The hike down Blue Mtn went well - my knee didn't bother me. From there we started up Rocky Mtn, where we found some Trail Magic. Easter Eggs filled with candy all along the trail - we took a couple. It was a pretty long climb up the mountain. Took a break about halfway and Jersey and Hepcat passed us by. Jersey had hitched a ride into Helen @ Unicoi gap the day before & stayed at the Super 8. Hepcat had an offer from a family he had met to stay at their place & get some home cooking, etc. We caught up with them again at the bottom of Rocky Mtn, and we all headed up to Tray Gap together. Jersey & Hepcat talked baseball the whole way. It helped to keep our mind off of the climb. We all couldn't wait to get to Trail Gap, because the Boy Scouts were going to be up there, serving all kinds of food. Cheeseburgers - YUM! I think they do it every year. Once we got there, we chowed down a bunch of great food and talked with the people. After, we had another big climb up Tray Mtn. (Wonderful views - the best yet!) We stopped by the shelter quick to get water, but continued on to Sassafrass Gap, where we're camped now. Hepcat made it in, too. We're going to hitch rides into Hiawassee tomorrow and stay at the hotel to rest up. My knee was pretty good today, and I think we did about 12 miles. Hopefully, it's on the mend. Well, there's a mouse digging around in my bag outside. I think I better go to sleep, or listed to the radio & try to ignore it.

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