The severe weather we were expecting last night never showed up. From what we could tell, the storm split into two, and Whitley Gap happened to be right in the middle, so we got a little bit of rain that stopped around 7 or 8, and maybe a short follow-up around 2:30 am, but otherwise, it was a very nice moonlight foggy night.
The same group of U of Miami students who were at Neel Gap were at Whitley last night, as well as another group of thru-hikers, Mamma Cheddar, Ghost, Nado, and Pops. The plan for today is to meet up again two shelters down, at Blue Mountain, and camp. (We don't want to use the shelter, because a second group of U-Miami students were there sick last night; our working theory is they had mishaps with their water filters freezing up on Sunday.) We left around 9:30, and I separated from the group shortly after leaving the shelter, forging on ahead, and later, ran into Skywalker (who left the shelter earlier than I did).
The weather today was pretty nice, and I took off my fleece early in the day (and got the somewhat expected sunburn on my arms as a result). The early part of the day, through Low Gap, was mostly downhill and very easy. Things got a bit more challenging today towards Blue Mountain, rocky and uneven, but I still managed to make it to the shelter around 3:30. Ate dinner (with no boil-over, yay! — just use less water), and am relaxing in my tent now. Will go out and be sociable after a short nap.
