Miles Today: 15.4
Mile Marker: 58.3 Tray Mountain
I slept terribly last night. It was the first night I camped near a shelter, and a late night group came in and were rowdy until 10:30. That may sound early, but right now everything breaks up by 7:30 and most people are asleep by 8:00. However the real problem was I drug in late and exhausted and picked a poor camp site. I was at a slight incline and kept rolling off of my sleeping pad. After tossing and turning I woke up at 4:30, posted yesterday's blog, mapped out my day, and packed up around 5:30. I was able to sneak out of camp while it was still dark and catch the sunrise while eating my breakfast. I can't even remember the last time I was able to just watch the sunrise. Tiff and I always saw it at work, but we were you know… working.
From there I had a really casual day. The first five or six miles of the morning were amazing. Trail was well maintained, no rocks, and the woods were just waking up. I took it slow and took three naps before the rest of the wave of people from Low Gap started to catch up. My plan was to get in 11 and then reassess. Then I found a spot in the guide at 13 to shoot for. Right after I got there four other people showed up just as beat as me. We were debating camp sites when a lady came down the hill and mentioned trail magic 0.8miles up the mountain. I decided I could go another mile for some alleged hamburgers. When I got to he top I found three local guys serving a spread of hot dogs, cokes, ice water, cookies, and some fruit. A few minutes later and the other four crested the hill. From there we pushed as a group to the next shelter because we needed to be by a water source to fill up and make our next leg tomorrow.
So an accidental long day after a rough, slow streak. I'm a little overheated and dehydrated, but I'll get that fixed before bed. All in all it was an excellent day on the trail. Next bogey appears to be Saturday when we could be getting our first wintery mix.