Lunch Break On Bluff Mountain
Starting mile 257.3
I slept in a little late today because I was tired from yesterday. It was a tough day. Today will be much easier.
The morning started with a nice 3.5 miles of downhill that I was able to cruise over. I did this distance in about an hour and a half. Then I had my first climb of the day. It wasn’t bad compared to yesterday particularly since it was still cool in the morning. The climb up Walnut Mountain flew by with a little help from my ear buds and some podcasts. Before I knew it I was up and over the mountain and at the base of Bluff Mountain.
I took this opportunity to eat a second breakfast and drink some water before conquering Bluff Mountain. It was about a 1,100-foot climb over about 2.5 miles. While it was a sustained climb it never got steep. It took me a little over an hour to get to the top where I ran into four4 people doing a week-long section hike. They were going to push into Hot Springs tonight. I saw them a couple more times throughout the day.
At the top of Bluff Mountain, I finally had some signal which was nice because I could check in with the world. I found out my nephews got the post card I sent them from Franklin and they loved it. I think I’m going to try to send them some more post cards from the trail. I also got some bad news; my trail friend ,“Neptune”, had to get off the trail. He was having some leg issues and needed to get it looked into. While I’m not surprised it came to this I was hoping that the zero day he took in Gatlinburg would have taken care of it.
After leaving Bluff Mountain I had a long descent, but the trail was good, so I was able to make good time. Unfortunately, after the descent it got hot, forcing me to slow down. It is too early in the year for it to be in the 80s. I don’t want that until June. It took me a couple of hours and a lot of little stops to make it into camp.
Tomorrow I’ll have a nice 3.1 mile day into Hot Springs. I plan to get going early so I can get some breakfast. Today I did 14.8 with about 2,400 feet of elevation gain. Ending mile 272.1