Start: US 52, Bland, VA (AT mi 591.8). Stop: Stealth Site (AT mi 574.6 miles). Today’s miles: 17.2 miles. Total AT mileage: 1618.5 miles
I’m not sure if you get updated when I edit a previously posted entry.. but if so, I’m sorry for the recent bombardment.. I’ve realized I’ve been tired and rushing these posts- I made one mileage mistake and it therefore crossed over to several days. I’ve officially fixed it all, I think anyway.. and I’ll be better at paying attention to the details before posting!
I slept in until 7am-and it was everything I had imagined it would be! I slept so good in that bed, in a bunk room alone. I had the ceiling fan on and I even turned on the window AC unit for some extra noise-just on the fan setting though.
I got ready and headed downstairs to breakfast. Mrs. Julie made us pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage.. patties not links and I am SO happy about that! Those sausage links are gross, in my ever so humble opinion. I also had coffee.. I was enjoying it so much I was already thinking about tomorrow morning and my plan to adopt Cactus’ morning routine-get up and get my food bag first (I’m assuming after a quick pee) and then eat breakfast and have coffee in the tent still huddled with my quilt.. THEN packing up.
Robert drove HikingPole, Soundscape, and me to the US 52 road crossing. HikingPole went north, we headed south. With full packs. Man oh man, I still get shocked every time I lift that thing when it’s full of food and water. Whew, when does it get easy? Haha! I had 2 liters of water plus a Gatorade because the water options are limited. Many, if not most, of the water crossings are dry right now. So, sadly we have to tote more.
The trail immediately went into a climb.. luckily I got a view pretty quick! But then it was back into the deep woods and my views consisted of pretty pine straw and fallen leaves on the trail, surrounded by huge trees. There seemed to be several blow downs too. That was sometimes complicated to get over or around, but it did make it interesting.
Reggae passed me at some point-I cannot for the life of me remember when I met him.. but I know I did.. lol. He can’t remember either, but he knew my name. Shortly after he and his friend passed, Soundscape got to the road crossing he was getting off at. His daughter was coming to pick him up for a few days off trail in Nashville, to celebrate her birthday I believe! How fun!
I went down a steep descent and then had to refill and tote more water to get to my destination. The creek I was at was only 12 miles into the day, I was originally hoping for a 20 mile day, but Finch text me and told me about a stealth site at 17 ish for the day. I had to carry water for all of it, so I called it at 5pm at the stealth site. That uphill climb after the creek really kicked my butt.
While I’m sure it was because of the full pack, the extra water, the random new heat and return of the gnats.. I was exhausted. I felt more tired after this 17 mile day than I did after the almost 27 mile day.. conditions truly make all the difference! I got my tent set up, bear line thrown, and stuff unpacked pretty quickly. Once I realized I had service, I set to work uploading yesterday’s pictures and blog post while I cooked and ate dinner. I would say I’d go ahead and upload today’s pictures, but it’s almost 8:30 and I think I’d just rather go to bed instead! Haha
Goodnight!
