Tara says: Yesterday was definitely the worst day on the trail for us. Backtracking those few miles and then trying to press on to the next shelter killed our morale. We ended up making it to Whitley Gap shelter at about 8pm.  Stew's knee was killing him at this point and we were both so frustrated with everything that we both broke down at separate points.  The sunset on top of the mountain, however, was one of the most magnificent I'd ever seen. And then our luck tuned for the better:  though warned that there were "40" boy-scouts at the shelter, we came down and found it empty- the scouts were camping a few yards away.  So Stew and I set up our tent in the shelter and had 9 entire hours of peaceful slumber (which we desperately needed after our bear night). Plus, the scouts were so kind as to bring us extra food they had in the morning...  even olive oil!  Thank you troop 589 from Beaufort!!!  
Today was cold and windy, and surprisingly lonely, as we saw nearly NO thru-hikers the entire day.  This feeling of camaraderie was something that neither Stew nor I knew we would  want on the trail... but after a week of hiking with the same group of people, you find comfort in their presence throughout the day.  It's also nice to know that you aren't the only one with aches and pains.. We all share our gripes at the end of the night around the campfire (along with plenty of jokes and wise-cracking).  So today our goal was to make it to Blue Mountain shelter, and despite the large milage, we did.  We were greeted warmly by a group of familiar hikers who fed us extra food and discussed our bear incident.  We're glad to be " home" tonight.  We're going to take it easy the next couple of days and ease our way into Hiawassee where we might take a day off to let Stew's knee heal.  Hopefully I'll be able to write a "proper" blog from the public library instead of on the phone.
Feelin' good!!!

Stew says:   Loved getting to shelter tonight after a tough hike,  awesome fire going.  Knee is killing me but it is manageable,  I'll keep gritting my teeth til we get to town and I can take it easier.   But got to get back to the fire for tonight.  Good to be laughing and drinking coffee.    Ps.  I really hate bears!