7AM – Summit Springer Mountain, GA
Started from Springer a little on the late side. It had been pretty cold all night and I got close to no sleep although I had made camp the night before quite early.
The morning though was pleasant and I made my way quite swiftly through most of the day. There was rain throughout, in spurts, but nothing major.
Around 6:30 I decided to go the distance. I had over 20 miles in already and figured if I hiked into the night I could pass Neels Gap, bringing me to over 35 miles for the day.
Weather put a damper on that plan though. Phone service is sketchy sometimes, pretty typical, but I got lazy checking my radar app when I did have service and subsequently got surprised by a big storm, while I was in an area that literally provided no close shelter.
So I threw on my rain jacket and decided to hike through to Blood Mountain shelter at least, but the storm was too much. Everything was slippery, mud was up to ankle high and the trail turned into a river. Also, it appears my $50 Acer rain jacket is not water proof. I’m not sure why Acer would make a rain jacket that rain can get in, but either way, I need a new one. I finally gave in around 9PM and made camp (in the rain) at first opportunity.
I was soaked. And everything I was wearing was soaked. I had some warm dry shorts and shirt in the bag, but discovered I forgot to pack additional underwear… Great. So, I have the underwear I wore in and the underwear I had already changed into. Both are wet. So, commando its gonna be.
