Not A Good Day

All the plans at the beginning of the week have now changed and I assume they will change again before the weekend. 

I think today was the first day that Jeff and Gavin were thinking hiking this trail was a bad idea. Gavin's voice memo sounded really down this morning and that just breaks my heart. Their first 3 miles were in the rain and cold this morning. They made it to Spence Field Shelter and hung out there for a couple hours. They even got out their sleeping bags to get warm. They also had a bit of a coyote encounter last night. Jeff talks about that in the video for today. 

Here's the deal. They are in the middle of nowhere. The closest parking lot as of right now is about 16 miles away. This is at Clingmans Dome. But the road at Clingmans Dome is closed. So, there's no way to stay in a hostel or even to be picked up at all until they get to Newfound Gap (it's not far from Clingman's Dome). Then they'd have to hike 30 miles before the next parking lot. There's just a lot of planning that has to happen and then the plans change constantly. 

Gavin closes his eyes in so many pictures. Bless. But they seemed in a little better spirit tonight. The cell phone reception is not good, but I did get to talk to them for a few minutes. I have no idea what all will happen tomorrow. 

As usual, I'll keep you posted.

~Julie