One state down

Day 7

Hiked today: 11.8
Hiked total: 79.3
To katahdin: 2099.0

We woke up at our usual 6:30 to a room a little colder than we would have liked. It took us a little while to actually get out of bed, but we finally did and started packing up. We went and got breakfast at a fast food place which had surprisingly good biscuits. Finally we got our stuff together and left. The old lady (who took our $55) waved us goodbye and we started walking along the road with "Appalachian trail" written on a hanger. We actually walked about a mile and a half - we actually weren't in town anymore - until a volunteer firefighter, hiker search and rescue, carpenter, and nice guy named Harold picked us up. He drove us to the trail even though it was a few miles past where he needed to go, and we got off to a late - 9:45 - start. It was mainly uphill but there were only a couple hard pushes where Andy went ahead a little. About halfway through we ran into two hikers, one of which Andy met a few days ago. Jim and Ed hiked with us for a little while. I think they thought we would be really fast being young and all so they, with their 10 pound packs, so we all basicllly ran for two miles so no one would be shown up. Finally we got to their car which was our halfway point. Jim wanted to buy is lunch but didn't have the time today. So we ate lunch and trucked on. That's where the couple pushes were. We eventually got to our campsite and set up the tent inside the shelter for added protection as it might rain. We ate dinner and tried to remember some card games for a deck we found but to no avail. Pretty sunset, and a really cool tree right after the NC line. We also set up our first bear bag as there is no hanging cable at this shelter. We may meet up with Jim and Ed in shennandoah in VA if the timing is right.

We may try a 20 miler tomorrow because we are going to take a rest day in Franklin NC to celebrate completing our first state and our first 100 miles. Also Andy hasn't taken a day off yet. Hopefully it won't be too rainy tomorrow.

via BB