Miles today: 17.8
Total miles: 1480.2
As usual, we were slow to leave down, getting on the trail at 11am only after getting some nice “real” coffee. We left town with very full and heavy packs, carrying five days of food, the most I’ve carried in a very long time. It was a beautiful day out, in the mid 60s and on and off sun. But boy was the hiking stuff with my loaded pack. The miles seemed to drag on and I was sweating like crazy on each uphill. Our goal was to get to Mcafees Knob for sunset. Mcafees knob is a rock overhang overlooking the valley below and is apparently the most photographed spot on the AT according to our guide book. All day I kind of felt the pressure to keep moving to be absolutely sure I’d get there in time for sunset. Finally, Delta and I got there around 6pm. It was cloudy and there was no real sunset to see. The view was pretty, but we’d definitely overhyped it. The photos make it look cooler than it actually was. We enjoyed having a photoshoot for a while and then headed down the mountain 1.7 miles to the next shelter as it grew dark. At some point, we grew concerned we weren’t on the trail because we hadn’t seen any white blazes in a while. It was dark at this point so I really hoped we were going the right way. Finally we came to a sign and we discovered we’d somehow taken a different trail for about a mile but were now intersecting with the AT. crap. Delta refuses to skip even an inch of the trail so he headed back up to retrace the trail we’d missed. I don’t want to miss an inch of the AT and would never purposely skip a section but I figure if it was an honest mistake I’m not going to hold it against myself for missing a mile. I walked to the next shelter by the light of my headlamp and started making my dinner when I got there. As I looked for my spork to start eating I discovered I must’ve left it back at the hotel in Daleville–I couldn’t find it anywhere. Delta still wasn’t done hiking so I resorted to using triscuts as little spoons to eat my rice. I’d have to eat the “spoon” every so often as it grew soggy. This should be a fun couple of days trying to eat without a spork until I get to the next town.