Day 5

Another hazy foggy cold morning. Don't have many pictures from today, as we didn't get any morning views. Stuck to our 6:30 wake up, 8:15ish departure from camp. 
We ran into Mayor, who thruhiked in 2022 and he gave us our first trail magic which was a tootsie pop. 
Afterwards, we had a pretty brutal climb up Tenatsw Gap, which exhausted us. When we got to Hogpen Gap we caught up with Lisa and Steve who were meeting up with their son for a resupply. They're section-hiking for the month of March and are trying to get through the Smokies to I-40. They had some extra breakfast sandwiches and I was able to snag an Egg and Biscuit and it easily was the most delicious thing I've eaten so far on trail. 
The picture doesn't really do it justice. 
Continued walking and by now it's 11:00am and the sun really started to come through the clouds. Definitely got to 70 degrees today. Had our most appetizing water source of the hike too, great flow out of the mountain.
Ended up in camp around 2:00, another early day. Legs were tired at the end of the day since we cameled water up to the campsite. Hiked just under 11 miles today with around 2500 ft of gain. Big day tomorrow as we're going to push ahead towards Tray Mountain. At least 3000ft of gain in the next 12 miles, an extra 1000ft if we push for the shelter 14 miles ahead. The more miles we get in tomorrow, the less we have to do Saturday and Sunday, which means the quicker we get into town/our hostel for Sunday night. 
Camped with fish, patches, Lisa and Steve again tonight. Spent a lot of time around the fire. 

Happy Trails 🌲 

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