Day 4- Neels Gap to Low Gap Shelter

31.7 miles. In three days. Today's hike added 11.5.  43.2 miles total miles. Today was hard. We stumbled into the shelter around 6:50. We took many breaks along the way, to include stopping to make more sausage and potato burritos.I left out the dirt this time.

The day started well with rib sandwiches and a nutter bar for first breakfast.

We then used the tables at Neels Gap to reorganize our packs. I thought about asking the outfitter staff for a pack shakedown. They are well known for this service, helping tired hikers shed unnecessary weight from their packs. I decided not to waste their time, since we were very unlikely to buy any gear.

All that packing made me hungry. Time for second breakfast. Pizza and another diet soda.

We grabbed a few snacks, and hit the trail 2 hours later than normal. We had no idea how hard the day would be.

Today was hot and still at times,  mostly during the climbs. A nice cool breeze often met us at the top, but the sun zapped our energy during the climbs.

Up, down, up, down. No huge climbs, but today was harder than yesterday.

Tired of hiking, covered in dirt from the dusty trail, we plodded into Low Gap Shelter. ..11.5 hard miles.

Rain is threatening in the next few days, our little lark in the woods may be about to get much less fun.

Sage is a hiking machine, I'm not impressed by her mileage,  I expect it. I don't know why I even ask her "stop here, or press on." If there is daylight left...she wants to press on. Every time. The trick with her is keeping her from hiking her feet into bloody little stumps.

Actually..that applies for both of us. The hardest part of this seems to be keeping your feet going. You can always push through sore muscles, out of breath...breath harder. But it appears that feet have limits. As we try to crank up the daily miles, I suspect our feet will be the greatest limitation. We may not be able to go farther, but perhaps as our speed increases we will have more time to loiter.