A new month and my first 18 mile day! 18.5 actually. We started out this morning at 6:50 and made the 11 miles to Pine Swamp Branch Shelter by 11:30. Took a long lunch there and set out for Bailey Gap Shelter at 1:00. Morning was excellent walking--sky overcast and not much elevation change until we dropped down to Pine Swamp. Afternoon was another story. A hard thunderstorm hit around 1:30 and lasted about an hour. Soaked us thoroughly. Plus, we had to climb steeply to Baileys Gap Shelter. Got in just as the rain stopped. Cheetah and Spec were already there as were two women I'd not met previously--Lauren and Jennifer. Our original plan was to eat dinner and push on to Wind Rock--a couple of section hikers we met in the AM told us a bout a good site there--but the rain lessened our enthusiasm for a while at least. Went ahead and watered up and ate dinner and finally decided to push on and got to Wind Rock around 7:00 to find the most obvious site occupied by Virginia Tech students (who gave us each a beer!) but we found an equally good spot nearby. It's wet but it's home for the night. Today's long mileage keeps us on target toward Katahdin that we set yesterday. The last four miles were hard--I was tired and the trail had lots of wet rocks. But I made it.
Tha afternoon thunderstorm was quite intense--very dark with heavy rain and some hail. Lightning flashes with a mile of us and rolling, rumbling thunder. It came up quickly: from distant thunder to pouring rain in less than 30 minutes. The woods darkened dramatically and I could hear the wall of water approaching through the trees. Sky never cleared after the storm but we did get occasional bursts of sunlight later on. We are camped near Wind Rock Overlook, a rock outcropping that offers a panoramic view of the mountains to the west. It is one of the few breaks in the green tunnel. The view is all forest--no farms or roads--just green ridges and valleys.
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