Day 8: Zero in Hiawassee

Total Miles: Zero / Four Bonus

It was a very restful day, just the four of us.  The hotel had a nice breakfast.  We returned to the room, piled out our dirty clothes and did a load.

While we waited we did a complete shakedown of his pack.  He had a gallon bag of Vitamin-I.  I'm serious.  A gallon ziplock of Ibuprofen.  He had a nice plastic case for his stove.  He sent probably close to ten pounds to the hiker box.

One piece of gear that wasn't working for him was his sleeping bag.  There is an outfitter here.  Once the laundry was done, we went there.  He replaced it with a new light weight down filled 15 degree bag.  He'll be warm and more comfortable hiking with his pack much lighter.

I had a sad gear loss.  The Luke's Ultralight Laundry Shorts gave up their ghost.  They weighed a mere one ounce.  When we went to the outfitter, I bought I 2.1 ounce pillow to help me sleep.  I didn't need one on the PCT, but I seem to now.

Then we did a grocery store run.  We'll carry food for six days and get to Fontana, NC.

With the work done, I took a nice nap.

We ate in the hotel room and made our plan for tomorrow.  We'll take the 11 a.m. shuttle back to Unicoi Gap.  We'll hike six miles for the day.  If the pain is too much for Dunkeroo, he'll know soon enough and can catch the 4 p.m. shuttle into town.

Between Blaze, John and I, he knows that there is no dishonor in stopping when you have a legitimate injury.  Continuing will only make it worse.

In our conversations, we discovered that all four of us played catcher in baseball.  I've preliminary named us the Backstop Boys.

We'll talk until we fall asleep, early.