Moisture and Mountain Views

I'm sitting in a Ramada Limited in Helen, GA (hooray discount coupon from the Welcome Center, making it affordable!), and I feel dry for the first time in 7 days. I've taken a long shower, eaten a lot of food, and am watching as a big thunderstorm dumps rain down outside. There are so many ways to be wet in the woods (mom alert: don't read the lines between the dashes)--get your minds out of the gutter...we're too dirty to be wet that way--and for the past 7 days I've been all of them.

I'm not terribly sore. I don't entirely mind being filthy. I can deal with heat and cold. The worst part is never really getting dry. I get wet because it rains on us. I get wet because I'm sweating all day long. I get wet because it's humid inside the tent. I get wet because I'm walking through the clouds. I get wet because I'm walking through the fog. I'm damp inside my sleeping bag, even without anything on but underwear. I think maybe one day, outside of today, I've been anything approaching dry.

It's not really awful. To tell the truth, it mostly frustrates me at night, because sleeping in the damp sucks. Sweating throughout the day isn't that bad; I'm exerting a lot of energy, after all and so sweating is fine and keeps me cool. The constant wetness is really just an ever-present annoyance, a burden to bear along with my pack.

...

What I love, however, are the views. I can be constantly wet just as long as I get to keep reaching spots that make me stop, dumbfounded by the beauty. We had one day in which we stopped about 7 or 8 times just to look out over the valleys and mountains (pictures to come when I'm not posting from my iPhone). We walked through the fog all morning today, surrounded
by the contrast between white mist and verdant green leaves and mossy rocks. We camped on top of Blood Mountain, 4,450 feet up, and watched the sun set. As tired, dirty, and wet as I am, every time I get to yet another beautiful place, I think "worth it."

7 days and 50 miles down. Hundreds of days, thousands of miles, and thousands of views to go.