Miles Hiked: 6.4
Miles Left: 1702.1
Ending Location: Lost Mountain Shelter

Today was a lazy day. There’s no other way to put it. With me only having to hike six miles I slept in without guilt. Upon waking I found Batman who also had the same plan as me and had hiked out of town late to break away from the pull Damascus imparts on you. It’s really easy to get sucked into a town and waste a lot of time there.

The hike itself was fairly easy. The only annoying part was that the AT and the Creeper trail diverge a lot even though they both end up in the same place. While the Creeper trail is all one big gentle slope winding along a scenic river, the AT instead decides to make its way up and down every tree covered mountain instead. It’s tough to know that you’re walking more miles, harder miles, and less scenic miles than another trail that you just rode down the day before.

I arrived at camp early so after pitching my tent, filtering water, and getting settled in I took a rare afternoon nap. I was briefly woken up around four as Owl arrived and tried to pretend to be a bear, but then fell back asleep. Even after waking up for good I still lounged around till around seven updating my journal. Basically it was a very pleasant day. If I only could get away with hiking six miles every day! About the only other thing of note is the fact that grasshoppers look like giant spiders when you find them in your tent at night. That was not a fun fact to learn.

Not a spider, but it sure looked like one!