Miles Hiked: 4.5
Miles Left: 2111.2
Ending Location: Plumorchard Gap Shelter

Brian and I woke up early in the morning, availed ourselves of the breakfast buffet and clean showers and then caught a ride back to Dicks Creek gap to resume hiking. On the way there our shuttle driver stopped by Subway so Brian and I each bought a footlong sub and strapped it to the back of our packs.

Thus prepared we headed into the great unknown. Last year our trip ended at Dick’s Creek so everything from now until we hit Vermont will be brand new to us. It was an absolute gorgeous day to be hiking and it felt good to be back outside. The only notable event while hiking was we saw a bunch of smoke off in the distance. It made me realize I didn’t even have wildfires on my threat radar so that gave me something to think about as we walked.

Since it was a low mileage day we arrived at the shelter around 1pm. B and I debated moving on but it was by far the nicest shelter we’ve seen and there was great tenting locations so we stayed. Giggles, (now known as Sunshine), and Julian, (now known as young beard), stopped by briefly. B played the part of the hero by finding a major problem with the rigging of Sunshine’s pack. Once it was fixed she couldn’t believe how much more comfortable it was.

There’s been a bit of renaming going on as people try out their trail names. Zen Master will likely end up being “Three Miles” since according to his wife that’s always his answer when she asks him how much further they have to go. Neither B or I have trail names yet but I expect we’ll get something before the Smokies.

The time flew by as most of our original group stayed there so we spent the next couple hours swapping stories. The firepit had a grill so B wowed everyone with a pizza quesadilla he cooked up on it. I on the other hand just finished up my sub which felt like cheating but I figure was a very Cambridge thing to do.

Almost all of us camped for the night so Andrew, (the Australian) had the entire three story shelter to himself. I on the other hand spent the time in my tent trying to catch up on my journal since I had completely neglected it in town. Hey that Netflix wasn’t going to watch itself!

Around midnight we were all woken up by the sound of a coyote howling in the distance. It was actually more neat then scary. I figured they’d eat Andrew first ;p That explains all of the dead squirrel fur and tails over the trail.

After that it was back to sleep. I am happy to be hiking again which was a welcome surprise. I had expected that I would miss all the creature comforts of civilization more once I had a taste of it again.