Night Two – Gooch Mountain Shelter

Today kicked my ass a bit. I’m hating downhills because it is hell on my joints. I only did 8.6 miles. I had been hoping for closer to 10 but the thought of sitting and eating was too appealing. It is supposed to be pouring rain tomorrow so if I can tough it out and do 15 miles I can stay at a hostel and dry out. I’m cursing having as much weight as I do and I have a bunch of things I plan on sending home as soon as I get to Neels Gap. Just don’t know if that will be tomorrow or the next day.

I met 3 other thru hikers today. Rich and Tracy who I saw at the hotel in Amicolola. They were watching the Superbowl. They made it from Springer to here just today so 15.8 miles in a day. There is also another guy, Doug, who is struggling with his knees. Which I can totally relate to. He is from Ohio.

I saw a military truck drive by at one of the road crossings and I saw one of the helicoptery planes fly by. You can also hear canon type noises and machine gun fire fairly regularly. And I found a spent shell casing that I’m going to send home.

I’m missing my kitties a ton. I would love to just bury my face in their bellies and snuggle with them. Oddly I’m not missing showers as much as I expected, but I do miss solid ground. I keep forgetting to put things in my bear canister and have to walk back and unscrew it so it is a major pain in the ass especially when you have shitty camp shoes (another thing I’m sending home).

I actually ate a ton more tonight than last night. Although I need to do better at pulling things out in the morning so I can have snacks throughout the day. Because there are only so many calories I can eat each night before I just want to go to sleep. Which I’m going to do now right after I rub my feet.

Fingers crossed the rain holds off til I’m done packing up camp tomorrow morning.