blue mountain shelter to hiawassee

a cold night at blue mountain shelter, but i stayed pretty warm by converting my quilt to full bag mode. still wish my sleeping pad was the insulated one, but i’m going to love it come the warmer weather.

ian and i were both out of fuel so needed to go to town to resupply. both of us thought our canisters would last 2 more days so we could make it to dick’s gap. we decided to nero (nearly a zero) in hiawassee for the day.

i wasn’t sure my stove would even be able to heat up my scottish oatmeal, so i took the extra step to filter my water before boiling. glad i did because i lit the stove and literally 10 seconds later it fizzled out. i put my oatmeal in and tried to cold soak it while i packed my gear. it didn’t really work, but i ate it anyway. it wasn’t nearly as bad as i imagined it might. the texture was actually pretty good.

broke camp and hiked the 2.4 miles to unicoi gap where ian, “noodle slime” (i was wrong last night. it’s “noodle slime”, not “pesto slime”.) and i were hoping to get a hitch. “noodle slime” had asked a couple college kids that were just camping one night at blue mountain shelter if they could take her. right as we were chatting a 1988 ford XL van drove up with “budget inn” sticker lettering on the side and a bunch of hikers jumped out. i inquired with the driver if he would take us to town. free ride if you stay at the budget inn, otherwise $5. we opted to go.

the budget inn got decent reviews on guthook (the app i’m using for navigation), and they had a $50/night hiker rate. ian and i decided to stay the night.

we pretty much dropped our bags showered and headed down the street to “kountry kitchen” where we were to meet back up with “noodle slime”. lunch was a riot. “noodle slime” is appalled with american food and had some amazing lines like, “this is an onion ring?” followed by “i think my heart is going to explode.”

the “kountry kitchen” was covered with tin signs with amusing sayings mostly about guns, but my favorites were these two:

we left “kountry kitchen” and headed to “trailful outdoor co.” the local outfitter. it was a really tidy store with two helpful guys who opened it last year and were understandably worried about what COVID is going to do to their fledgling business. i bought a couple fuel canisters (i think i’ll always carry two from now on), some seam sealer to stop my tent leaks, and a sun stick (better late than never).

afterward we said goodbye to “noodle slime” as she needed to hit the pharmacy and then was back on trail. no nero for her. and then we headed to ingles to check out our resupply options.

headed back to the hotel to do some laundry. the machines are all coin operated, and who has coins. so i’ve officially become hiker trash and washed my laundry in the tub.

afterward we decided to investigate the trail ahead and decided we’d get 5 days of food so we can get the 60 miles to franklin, nc. headed to back to trailful and then ingles for proper reration. got domino’s pizza for dinner and camped out in the hotel, calling loved ones and letting the laundry dry out.

back on trail tomorrow. meeting up with marissa, zak, and smokey (their pup) tomorrow for the 9am shuttle back to unicoi gap.