I think I slept for close to 12 hours last night and needed every minute of it. The long night helped immensely, I was still a bit tired throughout the day but the small sickness of yesterday seemed to be completely gone. It was about 10:30 before I was on the zipline back across the stream and it was already plenty warm. There’s no doubt summer is here.
It was another day with one decent climb, a bunch of pretty flat ridgeline, and a final downhill into camp. There was a shelter near the top of the first climb where I stopped to rest, it was only about three miles into the day, but provided a much needed break. Up on the ridge I saw a young fawn all by itself. It had been standing still just feet from the trail as I approached but I didn’t notice it until I half tripped on a rock and it took off. So I’ve seen a lot of deer now and the one rattlesnake. Still no more bears since the three cubs in the Smoky’s. Plenty of other people have seen bears lately, some multiple times.
Lauren and Elliot are going beyond this shelter tonight, they have to be somewhere by Wednesday morning to meet family coming to visit. DJ and Raven are somewhere behind, so tonight it’s me, Strider, a couple older southbound section hikers (more smokers), and Katie Wilderness who I first met a few days ago at Woods Hole. It rained for about 15 minutes after dinner and I finishes reading The Fellowship of The Ring, and started The Two Towers. I thought I had read them at one point, but now it feels like maybe I just saw the movies too many times and never actually read the books. Either way it’s a great trail read.