Later, the trail took us up and over Mt. Guyot. As I noted when I was hiking through Great Smoky Mountains National Park back in April, this was the other mountain the trail goes over that is named for the famed Swiss geographer Arnold Henry Guyot.
At 4,560 feet high, this Mt. Guyot isn't nearly as high as the one in the Smokies. And though it is higher than 4,000 feet, it's not named on the Appalachian Mountain Club's "four-thousand footer" list because its peak is located less than 200 feet from the pass that separates it from South Twin Mountain.
I lost track of Ralph going over this mountain. I didn’t know until he caught up to me that he had made a wrong turn and got sidetracked behind me. He must not have strayed off too far, though, because it didn’t take him long to catch up to me.
Before long he passed me again and was out of my sight. I thought he must have had a lot more energy than me, but soon I discovered he hadn't gone far ahead of me.
When I caught up to him I saw he had pulled off the trail. He stopped because he found what he was looking for, a stealth campsite. It was just barely large enough for two tents.
I didn’t protest for stopping because I was tired too. We tightly squeezed our tents in among the spruce trees.
After we had cooked dinner, Brook walked by. I hadn’t seen him since we completed the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia. The sky was turning dark and we pointed out a spot were he might be able to squeeze in another tent, but he said he wanted to keep going.
I remembered later that Brook always seemed to prefer camping away from other hikers and often hiked at night.
There was enough of a cellular connection available here to check the weather, and it was not looking any better than the last time I saw it.
Ralph and I decided Gimli, Frodo and Samwise’s idea of staying in a cabin tomorrow seemed like a good one.