Day 2After splitting up with Johnny and his boys, we met up on top of this mountain to take a little break. The day's fog was extremely thick but it did cast the most beautiful hue of blue to the mountains.
John and Robbie are collecting water from a little stream. They decide it may be best to split the group up and meet back up at a camp site. The three older boys, Seth and Brooke all decided to hike ahead at a much faster pace. Once there they would radio to us their location. As it turns out, the batteries from the radio died so we had to use the back up plan....whistle blowing. Once we heard their whistles, we were able to hone in on their location which ended up way off the trail and on the top of a mountain.
Robbie was the big foot hero. At the sign of any "hot spots" all you had to do was mention it to Robbie and the shoe was off and he was adhering mole skin. He vowed to have no blisters on his watch.....and he didn't.
We found the source of the whistle call and set up camp on this mountain. It was a pretty campsite, however maybe it was not the best choice to perch on top of a mountain during a cold, rainy, windy night. It also was hard to find the trail in the morning because it was so far off of it and everything is covered by leaves.
Here is John in his morphing ty-veck....he fashioned himself a shelter and seemed to be quite content.
Scout tried to seek refuge from the rain under our hammocks...
M.J. works to get her hammock and sleeping bag set up so she could get out of the rain....
Day 4
Robbie was having a time of it with his hair. The long manly locks just weren't the same in the pouring rain miles away from a hair brush.
Stopping for a break, Robbie decides he needs some hot soup to warm him up.....
The rest of us all took shelter under John's infamous Ty-vek....until it started to spring little leaks, then we were on our way again.
The rain let up to a light drizzle. However, the cold was pretty constant. We got to Woods Hole Shelter which was a pretty good hike off the path. Johnny's crew was waiting for us and they all stayed and helped us to make a fire to warm up by. Then they decided to hike to the top of Blood Mountain and stay in that shelter. We decided it was too cold and we were too tired to hike to the top of another mountain and stay on the cold, windy summit.
Here is our set up at Woods Hole Shelter...
Day 5
After a restful night's sleep, we set off for Blood Mountain (elevation 4461 feet)
Johnny and the boys would leave us messages in the dirt of the path to keep us informed. We had originally planned on meeting at the top of Blood Mountain. However, we got a late start and it was almost 1:00 by the time we made it to the crest. John left us this message that reads "12:30 Go Go Go" This meant we were traveling about half an hour behind them.
The most welcome site, once on top of Blood Mountain, was this privy! It is great to see your kids get excited over the simple things in life...even if it is an out-house on the top of a mountian.
We had a good time just exploring the 360 degree views up here. We had to climb boulders to get to the best view....here Robbie is helping his outlaw down from some pretty big boulders. 
Seth and Scout exploring the views.
Here we all are on top of Blood Mountain at one of the original A.T. shelters. Johnny and his boys stayed here last night and had some problems with some hungry mice.
Robbie hanging off the cliff of Blood Mountain taking in all the beauty!
Mom (Outlaw) hanging with Major at the very top of Blood Mountain.
Our three little ones (Brooke, Seth and Scout) at the very top of Blood Mountain....just look at how beautiful those layers of mountains are!
Robbie and M.J. are totally excited over today's victory!
While exploring the top of Blood Mountain, Brooke ran into a tree limb with her eye....She had a few tears but pulled through! Wow Blood Mountain named appropriately!
Heading down the other side of the mountain now but had to stop for one last take in of the beauty.
The first bit of going down was extremely tricky due to the slippery wet rock terrain.
After hiking the slippery rocks, we ran into some mud with wet leaves on it. The Outlaw lost her footing and slipped. She was pretty banged up from landing on a rock with her elbow, but she proved to be a real trooper when she got up without a tear and brushed herself off and hiked the rest of the way down Blood Mountain (Yet another plasma deposit at Blood Mountain).
After a lot more carefully place footings (no more injuries though) we finally got Mountains Crossing Hostel/Store in our view. It was still quite a climb down but the vision of civilization gave us all a boost.
We were feeling so revived after our showers and everyone was anxious to get a good night's sleep and head out early the next morning. Brooke and Grandma were bunk mates.
Scout feel asleep with the hostel's pet kitty. When I rescued the cat it was soaked with drool
We gave the Outlaw a couple of ibuprofins and made her go to bed (she didn't put up much of a fight there). We were talking about letting her rest at the hostel for a couple of days while we hiked on. However, the night's rest did her well and she was ready to go by the next morning...she is one tough cookie!
We gave the Outlaw a couple of ibuprofins and made her go to bed (she didn't put up much of a fight there). We were talking about letting her rest at the hostel for a couple of days while we hiked on. However, the night's rest did her well and she was ready to go by the next morning...she is one tough cookie!
Brooke's eye began to swell...ouch! It looked really bad this night but by morning she was feeling better and it looked much better.
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