The torrential pour we were expecting never materialized, not to say it didn’t rain. It did. As long as the rain was dropping on the tent, I had visions of Ayla and Jondular running uphill to avoid the onrush of the raging storm induced river. From Bunny’s snores, I don’t think she was bothered much by the rain.
The plan for the day had already been decided to be a light one. We only did 11 miles yesterday to prove that we were improving but we don’t want to push too much too soon. With Bunny’s tight calves on uphills and my tight knee on downhills, we are still just two hikers short of a good hiking couple. We left camp a little before 10–back on schedule.
There were still a couple of section hikers hanging around; Wounded Knee and Daddy Long Legs. We talked gear and hiking plans. They will be doing the Smokies when it gets warm.
Also, troop 400 from Savannah was still getting ready so I talked to them a little bit and shared some of my Philmont experiences. We ended up playing leap from all day with them. They were supposed to hike out to Unicoi Gap but ended up staying at the same shelter that we did tonight.
What a difference a day makes. Today was a gorgeous , sunshiney, blue sky, mid 60s, ideal hiking kind of day. If you want to put in a lot of miles, today is the kind of day you would like to do it on. That’s why we did our shortest day of hiking so far. To hell with big mileage and fast hiking. We’re here for the sloth convention.
We still made it in by a respectable 3 in the afternoon—ahead of the Boy Scout troop which came strangling in a little later with mixed reviews of the day’s hiking. There were already 3 people (including Patches) sitting around enjoying the view when we got here. Once Patches saw us, she said she was definitely hiking on. I share I brush my teeth at least daily.
While cooking supper, we decided to share camping stories and play games to pass the time. The game of choice today was “Six Degrees of Separation with Steve Johnson.” It was a complete bust. We stopped after just two degrees. I literally only know one person in Indianapolis and Lindsey knows a Steve Johnson as well. While we were getting ready, she had slowly been inching her bed away from us. When she found out we knew Steve, she quit moving her bed. When she said he was a great guy, I started inching our bed away from hers. Steve Johnson is probably THE most common name in the USA, lets make sure it’s the same one—shaves his head to beat nature to the punch line, check: runs every day, check; loves to hike, check…we have a winner. They belong to the same hiking club but she hasn’t told anyone she quit her job and is hiking the AT, so “mums” the word.
EFG