Friday, April 8, 2011...We Have Lift Off


Friday, April 8, 2011 - Its around 8:30 a.m. and we finally hit the trail ready for whatever lies ahead. My pack weighs about 36 lbs. and Grayson's pack weighs a little over 40 lbs.  They don't feel that heavy as we start out, but that would soon change.  We pass through many gaps and over several mountains as we grind our way towards the highest elevation point of the day... Blood Mountain.





The temperature is about 75 degrees and overcast which is perfect hiking weather.  We are fortunate that we get to see a few great views from some of the spots on the trail.  We decided to stop for lunch and to refuel our water supply at one of the shelters on our path that day, Woods Shelter.  As we quickly found out, some of the shelters are a good distance off of the main trail.  Woods Shelter was located half of a mile down a side trail.  It was nice to finally sit down and eat a light lunch but neither of us appreciated the extra mile we just added to our day.


We also filtered some more water for our canteens since some of the water supplies on the trail can be unreliable certain times of the year. Staying hydrated out here is the name of the game. As we refilled our canteens, a few more hikers met up with us.  One of them was a French-Canadian who we soon referred to as "Crazy Dave".  He spoke in broken English with a thick French accent.  He was hiking with his dog, Micah.  Not sure why we added the word "crazy" to his name.  I guess with that crazy accent he just seemed a little "off".



We finally push on and head towards our climb up Blood Mountain.

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