Trail Day 14 - A magical morning - Prof

Today had its highs and its lows. One high is  that we did our first 20 mile day! That might also be a low. I'll let you know how I feel in the morning. 

We started the morning late, not even getting to the trail until 10. We had to hitchhike to the trail from Glasgow. Luckily Josh gave us a hitch. He does some hiking but his passion in white water rafting. We learned a bunch about it during the 10 minute drive. He also shared some cool historical and ecological facts about the area. We really appreciated the ride, our first trail magic of the day. 

When we got to trail at the Foot Bridge (named in honor of a trail supporter Mr. Foot) we came across our second batch of trail magic. Some folks from a nearby hydroelectric dam had brought a cooler of pop and Gatorade to share. The Gatorade was a great way to start off what was to become a warm day. After about a half mile on the trail we came to the reason we zeroed yesterday. There was a bridge over a creek that had flooded and there was a bunch of debris against the bridge. Luckily today the water was down although the creek along with the big James rover and all the other creeks we crossed today were all flooded. 

 

The next trail magic was a mile up the trail. Somebody had left a cooler of Budweiser and coke! Doc grabbed a beer and I grabbed a coke and our day was looking up.

 

Then the day turned on us. We started to climb out of the river bottom. Some Thru hikers even said it was one of their toughest climbs yet. Although we were lucky and were given some amazing views to keep us motivated. This one has the muddy and swollen James River winding away. 

 

The day continued and we ended up eating lunch near a monument to where a little boy who had wondered off in winter in 1891 had been found too late. As sad as the story was, the view we had from lunch was spectacular. At lunch I discovered I had left my spork back at the shelter. Right after that I realized that when I had sat my pack down it had punctured the trail magic coke. My hip belt was now soaked in both sweat and coke. Great lunch 🙃

The afternoon was pretty uneventful other than seeing a waterfall and a pregnant doe. We eventually made it to camp just short of 6 and quickly set up and ate. Our camp tonight is just short of a shelter and right next to a rushing stream. It's really peaceful, no wonder people buy tapes of the sound of flowing water. Tomorrow is going to be another tough climb, this time over Bald Mt. A steep climb awaits on the morning. 

Goodnight 

-Prof