Since we stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning, we had a late start. El Gato opted to stay at the Sapphire Inn for another night; his plan is to meet us at Fontana Dam on Monday to begin the Smokies with Underpants (Brandon) and his wife, Simone.
We visited the outfitter, Outdoor 76, again. Hammy picked up a Sea to Summit Reactor sleeping bag liner to keep her warmer at night, and I bought a compression sack for Packrat's unwieldy -20 degree synthetic bag. Then, El Gato and Packrat went out to lunch, while Hammy and I had coffee and muffins in the room.
I contracted Judy, a taxi owner/operator, to drive us back to Burningtown Gap, and we arrived on the trail around 5:30 PM. We hiked well into the night, using our headlamps. Briefly, we stopped at the Wesser Bald observation tower to stargaze. Then, we continued on to a campsite just beyond The Jumpoff.
Breath taking view. Not everyone gets to experience this.
ReplyDeleteGod's splendor