This was my first long hike and unfortunatly I think I did a little too much. Me and 3 others dropped a car off at Unicoi and then drove to Woody Gap around 9pm on Friday night(Nov.22). The temp. dropped to around 23deg with at least a 25 mph wind with even stronger gusts. We slept outside in our bags until morning and did fine. On Saturday about 8 hunters arrived around 6am and entered the woods(one stopped to talk and said we were crazy to have slept outside that night). We were a little nervous about the hunters because we hadn’t considered them and didn’t have any orange to wear. Before we started into the woods, a bus load of cub scouts and boy scouts showed up also. We hiked to Blood Mtn and found the shelter full, so we set up our tents for the night. The next day we planned to hike to Low Gap but ended up hiking a couple miles farther and slept in the open on the trail/road. We finished the hike on monday but it was slow going due to knee problems with two of us and a black toe on my right foot. All in all I had a good time but it was WAY too rushed and I had to push myself too hard. When I go on my section hike in March(Springer to Clingmans), I plan to take an easier pace so I hopefully won’t hurt myself. I heard about the girl getting shot when I got back home. I wonder if it was one of the hunters we saw that morning?
Matt