Day 2: The sunburn

Hiked 13.0 miles today, tenting outside Gooch Mountain shelter.

As the post title indicates I got a nasty sunburn yesterday on the top of my head.  Even better I ended up with a sweet bandana line.  Well that was a rude reminder that you can still get burnt when there is snow on the ground and clouds in the sky.  I'm trying to keep it covered up in the hopes that it goes away before someone gives me a trail name from it...oh and so it gets better...

Today was even warmer than yesterday even though it started out cold.  We were first out of camp which means we had the distinct pleasure of breaking through the cobwebs that had formed over the trail as we walked.  Btw, in thru hiker lingo this is appropriately termed "web walking".

View from the trail

View of the trail itself

In talking to people we found out that the next shelter down (hawk mountain) was the place to have been the previous night for stupid people stories.  The best was one person who brought a 5 lb jar of peanut butter and no other food...  Even still you would not believe all of the gear we are finding by the side of the trail as people realize they are carrying too much.  I even saw a back pack...does that mean someone brought an extra?  A group we met left behind 16 lbs worth of stuff each at the last shelter.  I am pretty sure too that I didn't need to bring food this first week and could have just eaten what others left behind.

Today we summitted Hawk, Sassafras and Justus mountains.  None of them were awful but it was a little more strenuous today than yesterday.  I hiked for a while today with Chris, who lives in Sugar Hill NH.  We also ran into John from Manchester a few times.  Both have stayed in the same shelters as us both nights, neither have trail names yet.  It's been nice to run into some people from home.

We stopped for lunch at a nice viewpoint

Kerry and I rolled into camp by 3:30, even earlier than yesterday.  It's odd to cover so much milage so quickly down here, and it's weird to have such a short hiking day.  We have been averaging 3 miles an hour or so, so the distance flies by.  We thought about continuing on but 13 miles is more than we were planning for the second day and we don't want to push it too hard.  One thing I will say about Georgia so far is that out has tons of unnecessary switchbacks.  The 13 miles we did today could easily have been 9.  I guess I shouldn't complain though, we will hit tough terrain soon.  Tomorrow or the day after we will hit Blood mountain which is supposed to be our first really difficult ascent!