Hiking out in the afternoon is the worst, I’m already past the best part of the day and I’m starting to wind down.  We didn’t arrive at the gap till about noon and was exhausted from the sleepless night in Hot Springs. No one slept well, the grumpy mood was all around, everyone on edge wanted to be back on the trail. We had spent too long away from our home. Big Brown and I hiked out with a goal of the campsite 4 miles in.  Walking up the strenuous up hills the last of my energy drained from me.  By the time we had arrived at the first bald I had just enough patience to snap one photograph of Big Bald.

Taking in the sight, we continued on, talking and distracting each other from our tiredness. Through the meadow we walked and back into the woods. Coming to the next gap we were surprised by a beautiful view of the valley, just peaking through the trees. Big Brown and I sat here and relaxed for a bit.  Contemplating whether or not to go on, we were caught by the others. This was a beautiful place but we all had lofty goals of doing Big Bald for the night. Taking a picture or two we hiked on.

Walking along the hill side we came to our campsite, I was so tired I didn’t even care about Big Bald.  I setup my tent and started first dinner, Velveeta shells and cheese. The weather changing about thwarting our plans only solidified my result to stay there. It quickly became apparent that we’d have bad weather if we continued further on the trail. Eating second dinner I retired to my tent to relax from the rain. It wasn’t long before I was asleep by 7 pm. I wouldn’t wake till 7 am the next day, Feeling refreshed and back in place.