2017 Appalachian Hike

Another very uneventful day. I got up at 5:00am and was packed and on the trail by 6:00. It is a little hard to see at 6:00. I just start out a little slow. 

There wasn’t much new scenery today. The trail was pretty easy today. Maybe the easiest day yet. I covered 23 miles and made it to the shelter by 3:00. Good thing. I needed to hang my things to dry. Nothing is really wet. Just damp. It rained most of the morning while I was hiking today. 

I also inventoried my food and made my shopping list for Sunday. The timing is good. When I get to Pearisburg I will only have one day food supply left. I’m also going to Walmart to see if they have a waterproof iPhone case. Engineer is stopping there to resupply also. He has to leave later than me on Monday. He has to pick up a package at the post office but they don’t open till 9:00.

It’s supposed to rain the next three days also. 

My feet still feel great. My shoes are taking a beating though. I’m trying to get as many miles as I can out of them. The holes keep getting bigger. I’m thinking 100 miles more is about it. 

Engineer, Veto and Maple Syrup are here. Three more guys showed up that we hadn’t met before. Dancing Bear, Deer Slayer and Jeff. They filtered some water and then immediately smoked some pot. There are a lot of people that openly smoke on the trail. All ages. I’ve had two people offer me some. No thanks. 

The sleeping bag I’m using is the REI Radiant. I’ve been happy with it. It’s rated to keep me warm down to 19 degrees. So far there have only been two nights I wasn’t warm. One was my first night. It got down to 10 degrees. The other night was the night of the blizzard. I can already see it’s going to be too warm soon. A lot of the hikers switch from a bag to a sleeping quilt. They save weight and space.