Blue Mountain Shelter to Unicoi Gap

Day Seven – Thursday, October 6
2.2 miles in 1.25 hours
Blue Mountain Shelter to Unicoi Gap

We had just a short trek down Blue Mountain to wait at Unicoi Gap for our ride.  We got there way early and waited on the hill for the van.  If we had known last night that we could make it in 1.25 hours, we might have pushed ourselves to get here, but, as I said, we were exhausted last night and didn’t know what was ahead of us.  Again, we thought about when we stopped short on Blood Mountain and again thought we could have been to Unicoi Gap last night if we had gone on to Neels Gap on Day 4.

One of the steep climbs we had today.  See the steps?

Willie got to Unicoi at 11:00.  We went back to the hostel and moved the car up to Hiawassee.  We had arranged our shuttle for the northern part of the trail through two very nice ladies named Sally and Joyce. 

First stop in town was the Huddle House where we had a late breakfast.  It’s amazing how good real food is by the time you have spent 7 days on the trail.

We had read in the Hiker’s Companion about Hiawasee Budget Inn in Hiawassee being hiker friendly and that they would let hikers leave their cars there if they stayed in the Inn.  So we went there.  Our first impression was – well, it IS a budget inn after all. 

We showered and did our laundry and restocked our backpacks for tomorrow’s hike.  We rested awhile before going back out to an all-you-can-eat buffet at Daniel’s Steak House.  Back to Daniel’s in the morning for another AYCE breakfast.  Man, it’s amazing how good food tastes!