Total trail mileage: 561.8
Starting location: Shortly after Holston River
Ending location: Chestnut Knob Shelter
Weather: sunny/partly cloudy all day, 60-85 degrees during the day,
windy in the afternoon
I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.057593,+-81.399241
I screwed up rigging my hammock last night. There was a branch on the
one side, so I staked down my tarp on that side lower than normal.
Well, it cut off the air flow on the one side of the hammock which
resulted in a lot of condensation. So, I woke up with the occassional
drop of water and had to readjust the tarp.
The trail today was more difficult than I was expecting. A few of the
climbs were rather steep. But, the hike wasn't too bad overall.
I had stopped at the first shelter for a few minutes and ran into four
section hikers. They gave me a gourmet sandwich. It was really good.
The end of the day opened up into another nice grassy bald. And,
there was a spring-fed pond (which I stopped at for a while). I came
up to the Chestnut Knob Shelter, and eventually decided to make it
another relatively short day. I wasn't planning on staying here, but
it is a four-walled shelter with a door at the top of the mountain.
It is supposed to be windy and raining tonight so being shielded will
be good. It is a full house, and I am here with Mellow Yellow, Cookie
Monster, Enoch, Utah, Cakon, and the four section hikers (who
continued to give us more food).
My feet are doing better than yesterday, but another short day should
hopefully be enough to mostly heal them. The terrain looks easy
tomorrow, so I might go back to doing a long day.
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