Day 6 - 3/07

Daily mileage: 12.6
Total trail mileage: 61.3
Starting location: Blue Mountain Shelter
Ending location: Sassafras Gap
Weather: clear all day, 35 degrees in the morning, up to 60 during
the day

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.803225,+-83.676941

Ugh. As much as I was setting a good pace yesterday, today was the
exact opposite. The snow and ice became slick, especially into and
out of Unicoi Gap. I was sliding all over the place. Again, good
thing I have poles. The blowdowns became tricky, especially in the
section right after Tray Mountain Shelter. I had to climb through the
branches like a jungle gym. It looked like a hurricane went through
there. I thought I missed the trail so I dropped my pack and then
hiked back until I saw a blaze.

"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack
lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." -
Douglas Adams

Yea, well I was failing at the missing part. I fell once and nearly
fell a bunch of times but I caught myself (dad, I didn't break my pole
this time!). Well, I suppose it has been a few days so falling was
inevitable eventually.

There were some nice views from the top of Tray Mountain in all
directions. I could see Fontana Lake off in the distance (where I will
be in a little over a week). One thing I have noticed about Georgia
so far is that there are a lot of roads high in the mountains. Also,
the gaps are not always low in elevation. The mountains seem more
like big rolling hills.

I ran into Dan (from Clinton, NJ) and Jerry coming out of Unicoi Gap,
but they went past me as I was stopping for water and breakfast.

I was going to push on to the next shelter, expecting to get in close
to dark when I went by Jerry camping at a nice campsite. So, I set up
camp here, along with him and two other thruhikers (I can't remember
their names). Anyhow, we built a fire and hung out until past hiker
midnight.

Tomorrow I have 6 miles and then am heading into town. My legs will
be happy for the rest.

Oh, one thing regarding the blog. The maps to the right were supposed
to update as I progressed using Google Latitude. Well, I was updating
Google Latitude, but I was signed in with a different account. D'oh,
that has now been fixed.