April 24, 2017trekwithpat

April 23: Still raining, but tomorrow we blaze back into the smokies. Ben Gray has his kit set and is going to hike the last 35 miles out of the park with us. He insists that his 45 degree bag will be plenty warm at 5000 feet. Who are we to disagree. He will freeze his balls off, but we all have to learn our own lessons on the trail. A little light rain tomorrow will not deter us from pulling some miles. I promise to supply y’all with a picture of his high water mark of high altitude coldness as soon as it is available. Until then, happy trails.

April 23, 2017trekwithpat

April 22: We hiked 5 miles down from a very wet and cold mountain to Newfound Gap where we encountered tourists and trail magic baptists bearing Mountain Dew and pop tarts. God bless them baptists. Pictured is the Czech dude with the pickup who shuttled us into Gatlinburg. My friend Ben gray surprised us with an appearance after we got into town for resupply. He intends to hike with us if the weather breaks. It looks like it’s going to storm like hell all day tomorrow. We may have to take a zero day tomorrow til the weather clears. Pizza and steak has given us our strength back should the weather clear. Otherwise it’s indoor go-cart racing tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it turns out. I’m pretty bad-ass in the turns. Good night and happy trails.