Miles Hiked: 8.1
Miles Left: 2126.7
Ending Location: Tray Mountain shelter

Normally thunderstorms are awe inspiring. Try sleeping through one in a tent at the top of a mountain! It was pouring, the wind was gusting and the thunder was booming. Luckily my tent held up so it was tons of fun.

Waking up on the morning was not. My sleeping bag was the perfect temperature, everything was damp, and the temperature had plummeted. Luckily once we started hiking I started to warm up, and soon enough the sun came out and it got downright hot.

Today was the most elevation change we’ll see in Georgia with us going down Blue mountain, up and down Rocky Mountain, and ending up on top of Tray mountain. Of course we’re nearly done with Georgia so there’s a lot more big elevation days coming up! We came upon a group of through hikers at the old cheese factory where we tented last year. They had started Feb 2nd and were not going anywhere fast.

That was at the base of Tray mountain. At the top of it we could see skyscrapers way in the distance. There was a lot of debate but we suspect that was Atlanta since we couldn’t think of another city with such a profile. If so, that’s impressive since we were so far away.

We’re both tenting at Tray mountain shelter tonight. The weather is nice but very cold. I’ll take a cold night if it’s dry though to give our tents a chance to air out. The biggest entertainment so far was that we managed to start a campfire. It only took six of us, a lot of cooking alcohol, a jetboil stove, several survival matches and a ton of luck. If any of us ever need to do this in a life or death situation we’re so hosed… After we got it started we stayed around and talked until the late, late hour of 7:30pm. Life is different if you don’t have electric lighting.