Monday, April 18th

We woke up early, like around 7, and we started getting packed. We made the last bit of coffee and also made some oatmeal. We have some oatmeal, Ramen, a couple granola bars, honey, mac & cheese, and a tiny bit of sausage. We figured we would be fine for dinner tonight if for some reason we can't resupply. We finished breakfast and we were all packed up until a sort of young man came down to get water. We started talking and we found out he was an ex-soldier who completed 5 tours in Iraq. He was 37 and he was almost retired but still did a little work on the side. We decided he would be a great guy to interview so we did. He was planning on hiking 20 miles per day for 40 days and make it all the way to James River in Virginia. He then left, we filled up our water and went on our way. We hiked for 30 minutes straight then rested for 5 minutes. We did this a couple times and made a real dent on the mileage for the day. Our plan was to get to Deep Gap Shelter by noon and make mac and cheese. We executed this plan to perfection. Unfortunately the water at Deep Gap was far away (about 0.7 miles) so we dropped our packs, grabbed the water pump, and pumped water. We then decided to eat lunch and make our way to Dick's Creek. We got there at about 3:30 but our other hiker friends were there and told us that there weren't any shuttles coming to pick hikers up today. Usually, shuttles from the Top of Georgia lodge come up to Dick's Creek every couple of hours to pick up hikers and take them to their lodge for food, showers, and somewhere to stay for the night. Our hiker friends said they were just going to walk to the lodge, which was close to a mile away. So, we decided that since we have enough food for the night we will stay and camp at Dick's Creek then try and catch a shuttle tomorrow morning. We found a good spot with water and we camped there. We made the last of our food, set up our enos, and hung up the food. We are now in our enos and planning out what food we should get when we resupply tomorrow.