Awoke this morning to sunshine and felt much better. Bandaged up my blistered feet and hoped it would help. Had our first breakfast of instant grits and Pop Tarts that we bought in Hiawassee. Never thought I'd give in and let Pop Tarts become "part of our nutritious breakfast". For some reason they are the breakfast choice of hikers. I guess it's because they are available everywhere, are easy to pack, and give you a quick sugar hit. They taste a bit less like cardboard than they used to, but still aren't my favorite. Brandon loves them. Oh, well, life is full of compromises, and we needed an alternative to the moisture sucking granola.

The morning hike was mellower than yesterday. Crossed another White Oak Stamp (just what is a "Stamp", anyway?). Also crossed a side trail called "The Chunky Gal Trail". Brandon got quite a hoot out of that one. Took a quick munch by the road at Deep Gap. Several trails cross here, so there were lots of cars in the parking lot. The trail up to the top of Standing Indian from the South is a beautiful trail. Most of it is on an old roadbed, so it's wide, flat, and well graded. Even the last part through the rocks wasn't tough. We were rewarded with beautiful views from the top. Threw our packs down on the rocks and sprawled out in the sunshine to enjoy an early lunch.

Finally tore ourselves away and started down the other side. Took a short detour down a side trail to look for water, but it was going to be a long trip, so we opted to search for water further down. The trail going down was rockier, but still easy going. Passed a couple trickles of streams, but they would have been hard to get anything from, so Ronald suggested we wait till Beech Gap for a better source. Brandon was convinced we'd die of thirst before then, and got a bit miffed. He huffed on down the trail at top speed to blow off a little steam.

Turned out there was a very nice creek at Beech Gap, so we had plenty of water. Took a candy bar and drink break, then "the boys" indulged in a water battle. It started out with slinging wet bandannas, but ended up with them chasing each other with plastic bags full of water. It's a "guy thing", no doubt. They keep telling me I just don't get it. They're right!

From Beech Gap we climbed up and crossed the Timber Ridge Trail, then down to Carter Gap Shelter. We were going to stop there for the day, but it was only 3:00, and the shelter was a major pit. It was old, dark, dirty, and in disrepair. The bugs were out in force, so it was hard to stand still for very long. A big group of teens from a summer camp near Ashville named Eagle's Nest, was just leaving. Their leader mentioned that Betty Creek Gap was about 3 miles further, and might be a better place to camp. We decided to make dinner across the trail from the shelter, when hike on.

Brandon wasn't wild about the idea, but he got a chance to rest and eat, so felt better when we started again. Ronald and I remembered doing this many times before. It was still early, but since we were into extra miles for the day, anything distance we traveled on our evening stroll was gravy. This gave us a much better shot at Albert Mountain for tomorrow morning. We walked till about 6:00, and easily covered the 3.7 miles to Betty Creek Gap. Set up the tarp in a rhododendron thicket, and crawled in and crashed. Brandon still had extra energy to burn, so I rallied enough to play a few hands of gin before calling it a night. Brandon was still reading when Ronald and I dropped off to sleep.

At 16 miles, today was our longest on the trail so far. We didn't plan to hike that far. It was only 3:00 when we reached Cable Gap Shelter, our planed destination. So we figured we'd take a break then hike a few miles to reduce our hike tomorrow to Rainbow Springs.

The hiking today was some of the best and easiest on the trail so far. The hike up Standing Indian was the same as I remembered it twenty years ago. Standing Indian shelter was new and had been moved from the previous location, but the trail was the same.

Atop Standing Indian, the Rhododendron and Laurel were in full bloom. A large area on top is covered by a stand of widely spaced white bark trees standing on a thick carpet of grass. It was certainly a dream world we were hiking through. In our short stay on top, we got a number of good views and had a few snacks before being drawn back to the trial. The rest of the morning and afternoon, the trail gradually wound it's way up one ridge or another. As we traveled, we passed through numerous tunnels of Rhododendron.

With the exception of Linda's feet, we are all in good condition. She has acquired numerous blisters and bug bites. With luck, our stay at Rainbow Springs will allow her feet to harden. Brandon is experiencing some minor knee pain. We wrapped it and that is helping. I'll get a regular knee brace at the next opportunity. Right now I only have one small blister, and it has little effect on my hiking.

Today we got up and ate our breakfast of grits that we bought in Hiawassee, but it was not better than the blueberry pancakes we had at the Blueberry Patch. We hiked for about four hours and stopped for lunch at the top of Standing Indian. The hike up was somewhat easy and it was beautiful at the top. We hiked down the other side to Carter Gap Shelter. When we got there, there was a group of mostly girls from a summer camp taking a break. We walked down to the shelter just as they were leaving. We stayed there to cook an early dinner. After dinner we decided to keep hiking, so we went about three more miles to Betty Creek and camped here. We hiked 16 miles today.