Day 46- Ho Hum, Ho Hum

May 17, 2015

Chestnut Knob Shelter(566.5) to Stealth Camp(584.8) 18.3 miles 

Today was really pretty boring. The terrain was relatively simple and there wasn't much to look at. It rained for a little while last night and some again in the early morning, but nothing major. Rain has become this weird double edged sword. It's annoying to deal with, but without it our water sources dry up. Water has been kind of hard to come by the last few days. Even reliable water sources are moving slow and it takes forever to fill up my bottles. It's raining now and I actually hope it rains all night. 

I was up again at 5:45 and out of camp around 7. I had left my food bag and stove inside of the shelter and I didn't want to wake everyone up inside. I waited until I saw the first signs of life stirring before I went inside. I made coffee and packed everything up. It was windy enough that my tarp had already dried out.  As I was collecting everything from the shelter the sun started to peak through the fog and I was amazed by the view. 

Fog totally obscuring small town below

Airlock and I had plans to meet at the next shelter, 10.6 miles away, for lunch. I was feeling really good today, the terrain was easy and even with the humidity it was a nice early morning hike. I flip flopped with a young married couple named Dr. Pickles and Mockingbird. We bounced back and forth most of the day. 

Mountain Laurel beginning to bloom

I made it to the shelter around noon and had a nice big lunch. Tuna fish with mayo, mustard, beef jerky on a tortilla and another tortilla with Justin's maple peanut butter and honey. Airlock made it there right after me and we made our plans for the rest of the day. 

I started down the trail first and the next 5 miles flew by. Before I knew it I was already at our next meet up point of Laurel Creek. It was a really nice area, so I decided to soak my feet in the creek. 

Laurel Creek

From here we only had another 2 miles before we made camp. We set off for our final climb of the day. Once again we had to carry a lot of water with us since it was a dry camp. It was a lot of elevation change, but there were a lot of switchbacks so it was pretty easy. We found a decent place to camp and called it a day. It was only 4:30 and we had knocked out a lot of miles. We probably could have pushed on, but we weren't sure of finding another good camping spot  the terrain looked pretty iffy to find a flat spot for Airlock to tent on. 

The terrain for tomorrow looks pretty easy as well, so hopefully we can bang out a lot of miles again. We will definitely cross 600 miles late tomorrow. We are definitely cruising through the miles now. 

Flame Azaleas

"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure." -Winston Churchill