Total Miles Hiked: 159.2
Miles Hiked Today: 15.2
Glazed Honey Buns Consumed: 1 each
After a surprisingly good night sleep in the shelter, I got up around 6am, first light, and made some instant espresso to enjoy with my honey bun. Sage was a bit challenging to coax out of her bag, but we finally got packed up and hit the trail around 0745. We had two options for the day, either 15 or 21 miles. 21 miles would get us to the "Fontana Dam Hilton", but we that option doesn't make much sense as we would not be ready to enter the Smokies the next day after doing such a long hike.
Right before dark the day before, we heard and saw a huge tree fall. When we started hiking today, we walked past the tree that fell. No reason for it to fall, it wasn't even windy when it started to go.
The climb up to Cheoah Bald wasn't too bad, on fresh legs we knocked it out quickly. 
Our first stop was Cheoah Bald. We had to do a mile climb to get there, but it wasn't too bad and we were fresh from a good night sleep. The view, like many others on this trip, was impressive.
Today, Sage and I diverged from our standard one hot meal a day pattern, and ate a hot lunch, hot second lunch and a hot dinner before bed. I think our hiker hunger is kicking in.
It's a good thing we took an extended break at Stecoah Gap, because we had no idea what was ahead. One of the other hikers called it Jacob's Ladder, it's a long climb that is very steep. No switchbacks, just straight up the mountain. I know I say this alot, but it was one of the hardest things we've done yet.
After that climb, we descended to Brown Fork Gap Shelter, where I hung a hammock and took a nap. After my nap, we made Ramen and got back on the trail.
I saw a tree fall once on the Waccamaw River that seemed to fall without any apparent reason. I assume the internal rot caused it to reach its tipping point. It was an exceptionally rare event. Not sure if I can say the same thing about countries succumbing to problems within.
ReplyDeleteWow! More photos of impressive hard earned views.
As I remember from physiology (not a researched comment,) the body stores energy in different places and in different ways and pulls it out as needed. Starting with the glucose in the blood, then digestion, then fats & energy in other muscles. I have found you can get yourself in an exercise mode where you don't pay attention to one part of the body because it is overloaded with signals from a different body part. Like, "When will I ever get to the top of Stecoach Gap? I thought trails had both ups and downs."
I think we all would have trouble getting out of bed some days if we knew what was on the trail ahead, as in life. But we know who holds the future.
Many years ago, we were camping in a nearly empty campground at Big Sur. In the middle of the night, there was a horrendous crash, which sat us both up in bed wondering what the heck. Nothing else happened, so we went back to sleep. Next morning we looked across the river and saw a very large, newly downed tree. Makes a person think about the wisdom of sleeping in a tent.
ReplyDeleteCrazy homeschoolers! They ought to be sitting there in a desk with 4 drab walls and buzzing lights so they can learn something.
ReplyDeleteWhat a day you had! You look like you really needed that nap. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a day you had! You look like you really needed that nap. :)
ReplyDelete