Random thoughts, musings and things I think are interesting…
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Day 33 – Camp site by Upper Laurel Fork creek to Black Bear hostel
Note to self: always camp by running water (creek, stream, brook, waterfall) if I have the chance. I slept amazing last night! Was out before 8 and woke up at first light, around 6:15. First order of business was breakfast from the hammock, then getting dressed (in my ever so slightly damp and cold hiking…
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Day 32 – Doll Flats to a camp site by Upper Laurel Fork creek
The park like campsite at Doll Flats got a little crazy about 3 AM last night 😆. Out of no where, the wind started gusting at 25-30 mph…right into the side of my tarp. I’d not really taken the time to setup for high winds so through the course of the next hour both stakes…
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Day 31 – Ash Gap to Doll Flats
I might have had the best night of sleep on the trail last night yet. Definitely top 3. Part of it was certainly the fact that I’d had only 5-6 hits the night before (would totally do the home zero again – worth the short night!) but maybe more of it is I decided to…
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Day 30 – home to Ash Gap
I woke up before the alarm at 4:30 and was on the road 20 minutes later. The route to Damascus took me down the mountain parkway onto KY 15 straight into VA. I rolled into the long term parking by the pool a few minutes after 10 and my shuttle driver was already waiting for…
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Day 29 – zero at home
Not much to report for today. Spent the morning working on my PF (rolling, stretching, sauna), the afternoon doing some drying, gear repair and resupply and the evening getting some more “town food” 😝. Heading out tomorrow at 5 AM for a 10:30 shuttle in Damascus to Iron Mountain Gap and then a 12 mile…
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Day 28 – Stealth site right past Beauty Spot to Home
Just to dispel any concerns if you missed my last post, only home for a zero tomorrow. Plan to be back on trail on Saturday where I got picked up today. So last night was a doozy. The storms that were supposed to roll in today came early and started hitting us around 12:30. I…
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Day 27 – Uncle Johnny’s Hostel to a stealth site right past Beauty Spot
So about last night. After I posted (from the tap room) hilarity ensued. We ended up forming a trivia team (Serenity Now! – our captain, T-bone, is a huge Seinfeld fan), losing badly, taking an unscheduled shuttle trip to Bojangles (hiker hunger is real!) where we heard stories of accepting hitches from kidnappers and then…
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Day 26 – Stealth site about 13 miles from Erwin, TN to Uncle Johnny’s Hostel
The first rain storm last night led to 3-4 others about an hour apart, some with some pretty rowdy thunder and lightening (one that seemed pretty close) and a tree falling at about 4 AM (no one was hurt 😝). As a result I didn’t get too much sleep so when 6:30 rolled around I…
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Day 25 – Hogback Ridge Shelter to stealth site about 13 miles from Erwin, TN
One thing I forgot about last nights shelter: the walk to the water added at least another mile to the total for the day. In have seriously never seen water so far away from a permanent shelter. Whew, ok with that out of the way, today was a weird weather day. We left camp about…