Day 7 started out with a late checkout from the hotel. We got a ride to Neel Gap from our shuttle driver Splitter.
After a quick drop off of un-needed food in the hiker box, we got our rain gear on and headed to the trail which goes through the building. It was so awesome to see this and do this in person after seeing it in so many YouTube videos!
The climb out of Neel Gap was a little steep and it took longer to warm up the legs because of it.
We had a little drizzle at the beginning, but for the most part, it ended up being a semi-clear day.
It was a short trek to camp as our only other option was Whitley Gap Shelter which was only another 2.5 miles up; the problem was that the shelter itself was another 1.2 miles off-trail. Not something any of us was interested in doing!
When we got to camp, there were only two others there, Polar Bear with her dog Bela and Ann (totally forgot her trail name lol).
It was cold and I was getting colder by the minute so I quickly set up my tent which I couldn’t get to pitch perfect again on one side. Unfortunately, that meant I was messing with the inside falling down on me. Eventually, I got it to stay.
I apologized to polar bear and Ann for sitting in my tent bundled up but I was cold. We socialized from my bundled position in the tent for a while before bear bags were hung and everyone settled in for the night.
The sunset was amazing!
I got some sleep, but not a lot. I used more hot hands on my butt. At this point, they should be renamed hot butts. I decided this was the last night I was messing with this tent and pad. I needed that wider width as I kept rolling off. I was getting such miserable sleep, I actually ended up sleeping on just my thin reflective mat for a bit. After all, we never used air mattresses when camping, so I grew up sleeping on the ground. It wasn’t comfortable but at least I wasn’t rolling off my mat.
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