I woke up and watched Game of Thrones while Mr. Fantastic and CVS snoozed. Great way to start the day! I had everything packed up, so I could just relax while they got up and gathered their packs. I enjoyed my leftover pizza for breakfast and walked over to the NOC. We needed to stock up on fuel before heading out, so I wanted to get that out of the way.
CVS got a new room, and Mr. Fantastic joined me to go hitch back. The taxi was $15pp, so we stretched our thumbs. We realized today that having our packs on makes us look just pathetic enough to pickup. It took two lifts, as the first only took us a mile. The second was on the back of a pickup truck, which really makes you feel like a hiker.
We got back to the trail around 1:30pm, and enjoyed a quick lunch. Then the rains came. By the end of my hike everything that I had dried over my zero was soaked through again (everything I was wearing at least). Oh well, such is the nature of living in the woods.
The views were amazing today, long sweeping vistas and deep green pine forests. We walked on a razor sharp ridge line, with just a foot of grass growing on either side of the footpath before a sheer dropoff. Mountains looming from off in the distance in all directions. Amazing views, ugly weather. Thankfully the weather didn't detract from the views.
It was only a 10.5 mile day, but it's good to take it a little easy the first day back on the hoof.
I dried my tent out on our balcony at the motel, so I'm going to camp out in the shelter tonight to keep it dry. The shelter's full, but they always are. I may just shelter it for the rest of the Smokies, because it's very wet up here, and there's more rain tomorrow.
We've left behind CVS, Dick Flap, Optimus, Stonechair, Meta, Tapeworm, and Philly. If they have a good hike tomorrow though, some of them may catch up. If not then, probably soon. We're hearing that there are shuttles from all the towns that go to Trail Days in Damascus, VA. That may happen if timing works well, because we certainly aren't going to make it there in time on foot.
Well it's about time to squeeze into my little cubby in the shelter. Tomorrow should be another wet one, but at least I won't have a wet tent.
