march 7-8 dj gets lost

Its march 8. Thelast two days were beautiful to say the least. Clear blue skies, sunny, and the temperature was in the high 50s or low 60s. Last night was cold. But it warmed up quickly in the morning. Not all was well though. Yesterday, me and DJ left neels gap, after a good nnights sleep at the hiker hostel there. We bought some new gear, i sent home 8 pounds of stuff. The day wasnt supposed to be a long hiking day, only about 7 miles to thw whitley gap shelter. Despite my lowered pack weight, DJ was much faster than me, and kept having to stop to wait for me. After a while he just went ahead, and i was hiking by myself. I eventually caught up to frances and carlie on top of a mountain while they were eating lunch. Neither of them had seen DJ, even though he was between me and them last time i saw him. I figured that he had maybe gone around them and was far ahead. I continued hiking with the others, hoping to catch up to him eventually. We had passed the 7 mile mark and still hadnt seen him. So we continued on to the low gap shelter at the 12 mile mark. Dj wasnt at that shelter either, and it was late in the day. So i hoped that he had just gone off trail to the whitley gap shelter and waited there for me. Either way, the next day was supposed to end at the same place, no mattr if we had done 12 or 7 the day before. In the morning i continued hiking to the blue mountain shelter, 7 more miles away. I expected DJ to catch up at some point durimg the day, since hes faster than me and i took today very slowly, because my achilles tendon is swollen and causes my ankle to hurt. When i got to the shelter he wasnt there, and still hadnt caught up to me. It was still early in the day, only about 2pm. It gets dark at about 7pm, so there were still plentyl of daylight hours left. That meant he still had plenty of time to arrive. I took out my phone to try and call him. His phone went straight to voicemail, he hasnt had service, but it was worth a shot. I noticed that i had a voicemail. DJ had left a message saying that he got lost the day before, and ended up finding a house. The people who lived ther drove him to the trail, and he was continuing from the tesnatee gap. About 15 miles from here. Its almost dark and hes still not here. We are both taking a rest day tomorrow, saturday. So im going to wait at the blue mountain shelter. And hopefully hell catch up on sunday. The day off will help my heel hurt, and sunday may be a short day, wiith us staying at a hostel in hiawassee. Where i will be able to rest some more. There is an anesthesiologist staying at the shelter with his son while they are on a few day hike. He told me that if my ankle gets any worse my tendon can tear, leaving me with an injury that can potentially leave me unable to hike permanently. Ill need about 3 days of rest until i can hike again. Ill also have to lighten my pack. Mine is the heaviest around at 50lbs. Most others are in the 30s. Theyve given me the nickname "pack mule", as well as "sherpa", and "chef boyardee" because my meals are often a concoction of things i have on my food bag . Along with "The almighty D" it has become " The Almighty Chef Pack Sherpa Mule Boyar D". DJ's name, meanwhile, has become Dtour. Those werent the only names i was given, two middle aged women on the trail called me "pipes". Because they heard me singing from far off while hiking, and had caught up to me when i stopped to rest. They were hiking a little further than i was, to unicoi gap, where they were getting a ride to helen, a town a few miles away. they gave me a bag of homemade salmon jerky, which was pretty good. I ended up sharing it with everyone at the shelter when i got there.