We got up at 7:30 AM, because we wanted to start our day early, since it we had a lot to do before we left. In the morning, my dad and I changed into new clothes (which was not a great idea), and filled water in our camelbacks and bottles. We started our day off with a small hike down to Sam’s Gap, where we cross I-26, after we got there we had a small, but steep climb up. On the way up, we saw a lot of people going for a morning hike, and at the top there was a nice view. (pics below)

From there we had another 4.6 miles to the top of Big Bald. About 30 minutes later though, it started raining heavily. We put our ponchos on, but still got very drenched. We waited for about 20 minutes for the rain to abate, and then started hiking again. There was a bypass, but we decided to go all the way up, by the time we reached the top of Big Bald it was 3:30. Sadly for us, it was raining so much, that we were in the clouds, so we missed another great view because of the rain once again. (pics below)

Once we got down from Big Bald, it started clearing up, so we got a smaller view. On our way down to the shelter, we saw a bobcat hunting a quail! It was an astonishing sight to see. We got to the shelter around 4:30, and decided to stay there for the night. Our original plan was to go to Whistling Gap and camp there, but we didn’t since it was going to start raining again later in the day and at night. There were two other people at the shelter, but both of them set up tents, so we slept alone. We had an early dinner of Pad Thai with chicken, and we hit the bed early by about 7 PM.