I stayed in my sleeping bag late today. There wasn't enough room for everyone to eat with a seat at the same time. Once people started clearing out I got up and made my rounds. It was very overcast, but the rain had stopped for the moment.
Today turned out to be an easy hike, though that is the way things are trending. 13 miles today, with a shelter at the halfway point for lunch. Once in the lunch shelter it started raining pretty hard. Always a good feeling to be under a roof at the moment the skies open up. I took a ninety minute lunch break today and felt reinvigorated for the second half of my hike.
I spent the rest of my hike with full rain gear on, and headphones under my hood playing Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I was reading it before I left and decided I couldn't wait until I get back, so got it on Audible. I find he's perfect to hike to. He's very dry and monotone in style, which is easy to listen to while paying attention to foot placement. Of course he's also insanely creative and amazing with action sequences, so it also keeps me listening.
I got to the shelter at 5:30pm and met one thru-hiker, and 3 members of a family that were section hiking. I'm finding we bump into more section hikers in the Smokies, and to be honest I'm looking forward to getting back to the less populated areas of the trail. I've enjoyed all the section hikers I've met, but somehow they all snore! I can handle one loud snorer with ease, but the surround sound cacophony of vibrating uvulas in the shelters obliterates my sleep!
Dinner was great tonight. One backpacker pizza (a tortilla wrap with pepperoni and mozzarella string cheese), then some Spanish rice with sweet and spicy tuna (four tortilla wraps), and a Cinnabon breakfast bar for dessert(!). Now I'm quite stuffed.
Tomorrow we hike 8 miles down and out of the Smokies and then pass by a hostel with resupply. At that point we'll decide if it's worth staying there, or just stocking up and trekking on. We also need to get a new map. This is 3 maps finished, but a lot more to go. Everything beyond the next 8 miles is a mystery to us. There's something comforting about that out here.
