White Oak Stamp to Blue Mountain Shelter

Day Six -Wednesday, October 5
10.7 miles in 7 hours
White Oak Stamp to Blue Mountain Shelter

We got on the trail early this morning, even before breakfast.  Wait-up said when he looked back at me I had about two feet of leaves pushed up in front of my feet, I was dragging them so much.  Not a good way to start the day.  Starting out tired made it a long day.

We stopped later this morning for our breakfast of the yummy Big Sur bar and water, thankful again that we had a backup now for our oatmeal which required water to cook and we were now almost out of water. 

The water hole at Low Gap Shelter.

It was approximately 3.5 miles to Low Gap Shelter where we were counting on finding water – and a privy would be nice!  We found both. 

Oh the joys of a smoldering privy!  No squatting!  Squatting hurts when your legs are so sore.  It’s amazing what feels like a luxury out here in the wilderness. 

The privy.

The throne in the privy.

Interesting reading on the wall in the privy.

Yep, they have a camera in the privy. 

We enjoyed lunch on the picnic table at the shelter, then set out again.  For the rest of the day, it seemed that we were wondering aimlessly because this section did not seem to be marked with the names of the gaps and other landmarks as well as the other sections.  We were disappointed when we reached Chattahoochee Gap which was marked because we thought we had passed it long ago.  We have just about been able to determine by now where we should be based on how long we have walked, but we were deceived in this case.  Another fellow came along walking at a brisk pace and he too thought we had already passed Chattahoochee Gap.  I guess he was disappointed when he saw the sign several miles later too. 



At Chattahoochee Gap is the spring that is source of the Chattahoochee River, some 500 miles from this point, the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The ascent to Blue Mountain was very rocky and treacherous.  We were thankful again for our hiking boots and also our hiking poles.  The poles saved our necks several times from slipping and really gave us some thrust when climbing up.   We highly recommend the use of them. 



This was one of our fastest days for some reason, maybe because we traveled a good distance this morning without the weight of the water on our backs and the inclines were  not as hard as previous days.  In spite of a virtually sleepless night, we reached Blue Mountain Shelter by 4:45, but couldn’t go another step.  We were exhausted, having traveled 10.7 miles today in 7 hours. 



Since we were alone at the shelter, we decided we would forgo setting up the tent and throw our mats and sleeping bags out on the shelter floor to sleep.  The weather was more moderate now and not windy, so we were more comfortable outside.  Remembering the experience with mice at Blood Mountain Shelter, I placed my backpack between us on the floor hoping to keep the mice out of it.  NOT!  Immediately after dark, the mice started running around and Wait-up turned on the flashlight just in time to see one run right into my backpack.  I shook it until I thought there was no way that the mouse could still be in it.  We then took our backpack and hung them on the bear cable.



Lights out again.  Then a mouse jumped from the rafter right down on Wait-up’s sleeping bag and ran across it.  That’s it!  We got up and set up the tent after all.  We went to get the backpacks off the bear cable to put them in the tent with us.  As we took my backpack off the cable, we saw a mouse run out of it!  OMG!  They were everywhere!



Finally in the tent, we slept pretty well for the remainder of the night.  However, in the morning we found a hole in our tent where the mice chewed through and found some trail mix in the side pocket of my backpack that they had eaten most of!  Lesson learned – when there are mice around, make sure you take ALL the food out of your packs.  Man, those mice are relentless!  I don’t think I will be staying in another shelter!

Sunrise on Blue Mountain.

Blue Mountain Shelter