I was awoken at 6am by someone breaking down their camp. I stayed in my tent because I figured it was the section hiking couple, and I'd rather avoid another conversation with them. I heard them leave at 6:30am, and got up to realize it was Mr. Fantastic that had packed up. By far his earliest start to date.
We are attempting to start a trend of 10 by 12 as was recommended to Mr. Fantastic. That means from now on we get our first 10 miles done by 12pm, then we decide where we'll make camp.
I set forth by 7:30am, and got out of camp just before the couple got up. Shortly before i stopped for lunch I came across Ulysses who asked me if I was hiking South. When I said no he got really dejected, as he had apparently just walked a mile in the wrong direction. I then made it to the shelter for lunch at 11am, and caught up with Mr. Fantastic. It was only 7.4 miles, so I was a little behind, but I was going to eat with a seat. We decided to aim for our longest day yet at 19.6.
The second section of the hike brought the AT together with the Virginia Creeper Trail. This meant I had someone on a bicycle passing by me on average once every 3 seconds. Mind you this was for a good mile of trail. I said a lot of hello's on this section, and was happy to get off of it when I did. Although the trail did cross this pretty epic bridge, and that was different.
I caught up with Mr. Fantastic at the next shelter, where we both had second lunch with Ulysses. He was reading Breakfast of Champions on a Kindle while we read the shelter log (always good for a laugh).
This time I set out first, as we still had 5.6 miles to go before our planned campsite. My knees, hips, and feet were already feeling pretty sore, but limbered up once I got started.
This last stretch was an amazing conclusion to our farthest day yet. We had a great climb up the side of a mountain, out of a valley, up to the bald peak with a spectacular view. Walking through flowering azalea fields and over little flowing waterfalls. I even got to walk by some more cows, right through their grazing land in fact.
We're now camped up on the peak of that final hike, but in the woods to cut down on the wind. It's going to be a very cold night, strangely enough, so every little bit helps.
We have another big day planned tomorrow before a short hike into town on Monday. It's been a while since I've felt this achey, which I think just means I'm back to pushing my limits. That's a good thing, because we need to keep getting stronger before we get to New Hampshire. While the terrain gets a little easier we can safely up our miles, because afterwards we'll be rigorously tested with a rocky road.
