I walked by a cheesecake factory today.

Day 5 - 4/14/10

Just kidding, but I did pass a campsite called the cheese factory. I
guess some old settler guy used to have a dairy farm there or
something. All it did was make me crave some buffalo blasts.

Got another good jump on the day. Out by 8:00. It was beautiful
weather again, but not as hot as yesterday, which was nice. Plus
today's hike had a lot more shade.

I started alone and ran into a southbound hiker pretty early. I asked
when he started and he said he started up in Quebec last June, so he's
been hiking for 10 months! I was impressed. He's doing something
longer than the AT, taking him all the way down to the keys I think he
said.

After about an hour I caught up to two guys and stuck with them for
quite a bit. One was a thru hiker and the other was heading to NC.
They're names were Rob and Mike, no trail names yet like me, and it
was actually really nice to have some company while hiking for once.
Someone to talk to aside from yourself. Hopefully more opportunities
like that come up in the future.

We eventually got split up, they were hitching to a town anyway, and I
continued on. I decided to go for a 15 mile day to Tray mt. because
there's a shelter up there and if I made it then I could be in
hiawassee by tomorrow and get myself a nice bed.

The last 4 miles were tough but I made it. Cooked up some dinner and
hung around the camp fire with some other hikers. I was surprised how
packed it is up here. Anyway in hiawassee tomorrow I'm planning on
staying at this inn with another thru hiker named Davy who I met on
the trail. He's from New Market, NH.

The wildlife isn't all that great Mom. Everything is so dry and dead.
Most trees only have tiny leaf buds right now. You'll see some
occasional small clumps of flowers, but nothing spectacular. I have
seen a good amount of wild rodedendron plants though.

Anyway, gonna go to bed now. Good night, tomorrow a town!

Total miles: 56.5