Day 43

So a 13 mile day turned into a 15.3 mile day. Before I get into why, let’s start from the beginning. It was a nice and calm morning after the rains last night. It wasn’t super cold either. I was able to get up, break down camp, get my food bag from the tree, eat a quick breakfast and get going all without having my hands go numb. That’s a first! It turned out to be nice all day, although it got a bit hot. There were some decent climbs and lots of hikes along rushing water. There was actually a beautiful waterfall with a big pool at the bottom of it. I would love to have taken a picture for you to see but there was a man standing soaking wet in the middle of that pool in front of the waterfall rubbing himself down with a bar of soap. Dude! What if I had just refilled my water down stream! You’re contaminating the water with your soap! I mean, I get it. It was a nice pool of water and I would have loved to jump in too but it’s best for the environment if we leave our soaps out of the streams. Anyway, that kind of ruined a pretty waterfall. All day, it smelled like pine trees and wet leaves. The sun came out in full force and the temp actually climbed over 80 degrees! I drank so much water, I actually went dry for the last 3+ miles down to Uncle Johnny’s Hostel where I was keeping my fingers crossed I could get a private cabin. They were full and the group in front of me got the last of the bunk space, although I’m staying away from bunks and shelters right now due to too many incidents reported of noro virus. Too many nasty people, I guess. I was just about to pay the $5 to take their shuttle into town for another hotel stay since a thunderstorm is expected early morning but at the last minute, I said “screw it!” I headed back out into the woods. It was only another 1.6 miles to a water source (I’m still out of water, mind you) and I figured I could stealth camp beyond that. So that’s what I did. I guess a few people had the same idea. Right after the creek where I got my water, I saw an old fire ring so I started looking for a flat spot. Right across the water was a tent where the area was flat but I didn’t want to camp right next to someone else and infringe on their space. I continued on but knew it would be getting dark soon if I don’t find a spot so next tiny fire ring I saw, I started looking. There was a path heading into the trees so I went to scope it out. There was what looked like a nice, new rope with knots in it tied across the water like something to hold on to for crossing and then I barely noticed a hammock in the distance. Man, all the good spots are taken. Well, I was done looking so I set my tent up near the tiny fire ring. Hopefully whoever is across the creek in the hammock doesn’t trip over my tent on the way back to the trail. My goal is to go to an official campsite at mile 357.6 tomorrow and then have a short 6.8 mile day to Iron Mountain Gap where I hope to get a shuttle back into town before the freezing rain and snow scheduled for Friday night and Saturday. Crazy thinking of freezing and snow when it’s been such a warm day. Hopefully this is the last possible snow storm so I can crank some miles over Roan Mountains.