Day 6

Day 6 (BMT): 19 miles

It was my first great day so far

I woke up slightly before my alarm went off but was unsurprised to hear rain pattering on my tent. I didn’t really feel like getting up so I started to jam the song from Moon Knight to get me going for the day. It worked. Just as I finished packing up my tent, the rain stopped. I thought it was going to be perfect, but as I did the 2 miles to Tapoco Lodge where I had a breakfast buffet waiting for me, the trail was overgrown and all the plants were soaking wet. My feet were constantly on the rinse cycle and this was irritating.

I made it to the lodge before the buffet opened and they were super nice. I enjoyed a healthy number of plates refills but I’m not up to my normal self yet. It’ll increase in the coming months.

After I left, I began the 5,000 feet of climbing. I took it really slow and steady. All tortoise no hare. When I got to the top I was delighted wtih the view from The Hangover, a viewpoint I took a mile detour for. Finally, a wide open view of Appalachia like I had been missing.

I came across 2 day hikers that were having a time with all the mud and water on trail. They asked me how my shoes were so clean, which they somehow were pretty clean. I said I wasn’t sure but I guess hop around a lot. I do usually try to avoid puddles and step on roots or rocks to avoid total shoe saturation.

After the long climb it was a chill day to hike down to a bathroom where in sleeping tonight. It’s not really cold at night but it will be nice to be inside because it’s supposed to rain. I spent the whole day today trying to dry out my tent and rain fly. After keeping them dry tonight, it will be nice to shove them in my pack tomorrow and not have to worry about them already being wet when it might rain all day.

Speaking of rain all day, I swear the weather forecast changes everyday. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m moving so much but it’ll go from 3 clear days in a row to 2 days of rain to definitely gonna rain the next morning to it being a clear day. It’s been weird so far.
It was also a great day of hiking because a lot of it was walking on a ridge. Granted, it was surrounded by trees most of the time, but it was cool to get peeks through rather than absolute nothing. The weather was also perfect. Overcast so I didn’t get fried by the sun again. And temps in the 60s with a little breeze. AND NO RAIN. Perfect Appalachia weather.

Song of the day: a man without love-engelbert Humperdinck