Long, hard, hot day today. It's 9:00 pm now and I'm just getting around to writing. Didn't get into camp till after 7:00--another 12 hour day. today provided some of the worst and best experiences the trail has to offer. On the worst side: we had a long climb in the sun at noon with high humidity--almost did me in. Even after the climb the walk across the ridge was hot and dry. I was very low on water and desperately wanted something cold. One of the best: Just when I was thinking we should bail into a store at the next road crossing, we found a cooler of sodas. The ice was melted but the sodas were cool and wet. At the road crossing a day hiker gave me a half liter of water. True magic. Earlier in the day we found a cooler with sodas and other goodies just before heading to a nearby store to resupply. The sodas were wonderfully cold. We weren't as desperate then as we would be later in the day but we'd had a warm walk across Dragons Tooth and down the steep ridge so the sodas were much appreciated. I also had a cheese danish.
For the record: We walked 16.1 trail miles plus 0.3 out of camp and another 0.8 to the store for a total of 17.2 miles. We sat out a thunderstorm and ate dinner at Catawba Shelter before climbing over McAfee Knob on our way to Pig Farm Campsite. Great view. Dark clouds in the distance. Clouds in the valley. Now it's time for sleep.
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