This will be a short post. My phone and personal battery are both running low.
The repeated 15+ miles days are starting to take their toll. My trail legs are holding up fine. A little stiff in the morning but nothing a little climb doesn’t work out. I’m also noticing I can get into a “cruise” mode and walk for hours without stopping. What’s slowing me down is my feet. They really are starting to hurt. I think the trail being mostly roots and rocks today didn’t help.
The first half of the day was super cold and windy. Not below freezing but just over and the wind cut through you. I hiked in my puffy for the first time since starting for the first couple miles.
I hiked alone for the whole day. The amount of solitude on this adventure has been surprising. Not unwelcome, just surprising. The first half of the day was spent getting to the top of Wayah Bald. I submitted there about 12:30, promptly found the side where the wind was blocked and had lunch. While in was sitting there another group came over to picnic (the bald is accessible by car). They had brought beer that wasn’t twist off and no opener. I offered to open it for them if I could have one. I used the tower and popped it off first try. They looked in their cooler and all they had was a spiked vanilla latte. 🤮. I climbed the tower before I left but it was too hazy to be able to see the smokes.
I left the bald a little before 1:30 with 7 miles to go. There was nothing really remarkable about the rest of the day. Rocks, roots and hills (up and down).
When I got to camp the shelter was already full with the rain that is expected tonight. No bother for me of course. I’d rather be in my hammock. Actually tonight and last night have both been cases where there really weren’t any good tent sites when I rolled in later, but plenty of good hammock sites.
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