Day 26
Starting mile 283.6
I really didn’t want to get going this morning. It rained all night and left everything draped in fog. The temperature also dropped from 80 degrees to just below 40⁰. And to make this morning even better there was a 20 mile an hour wind. It really was a ‘craptastic’ morning. I didn’t get out of my hammock until almost 8:45 am. This was the latest I have ever hit the trail from camp.
Once I got out of my hammock I got on the moving down the trail in fifteen minutes. I had about 2.5 miles to get to the next shelter and more water. On my way I ran into “Rebate” who just like me didn’t want to get going this morning. I got to the shelter at about 10 am and found even more people who were slowly getting out of camp.
After filtering some water, I headed out with “Robotman” whom I haven’t seen since I got off the trail in Gatlinburg. The hiking was fairly easy with a nice long downhill. We quickly ran into “I Spy” who had stayed with “Robotman” the night before. She knew every plant and bird sound we came across; it was very impressive.
When the three of us got to the bottom of the mountain we came across some Trail Magic, three sodas, just the right amount for us each to have one. We started up the mountain and came to a road with a sign saying Southern Cookie Lady with an arrow, so of course we followed the arrow. We come to this beautiful house located at the back of the hollow. On the porch is a note saying to take a cookie. While we were eating our cookies the “Cookie Lady” came out so we were able to meet her. It was a wonderful stop.
We said goodbye and headed back to the trail. We had a nice long climb up to the next shelter. We lost “I Spy” on the climb but we would meet her again at the top. We got to the shelter at about 3 pm, ate a little and refilled our water. We decided that we were going to push on to the next shelter, 7.2 miles away.
I took off leaving the other two behind. I was determined to get to the shelter by 6 pm. I had an initial long climb, but it wasn’t too bad. I was right on schedule. Then I got to Big Firescald Knob. It is a long rock scramble along the ridge. It had the best views of the day, but it really slowed me down. I took a lot of great pictures of the valley below. At the end of Knob, I passed mile number 300. I took a quick celebratory picture and started down the mountain.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to camp until 6:30 pm. I ate quickly and jumped into my hammock because it was getting cold. Even though the day started so poorly it ended up being a pretty good day. I did 18.5 miles with about 4,700 feet of elevation gain. My longest day on the trail so far.
Ending mile 302.1