21

Did 21 miles today. There’s a real chance I might stop doing these updates every night. We have gained endurance, but not speed really. We left the shelter at 7:30, walked back to the car and started slacking. We passed three shelters today, and stopped at each but only briefly. We hit the trailhead at Sinking Creek (675.1 miles) at 7pm, pretty much shot. We got pretty lucky with the weather but we still had some rain, hail, and thunder. There’s nothing like walking along a mountain ridge miles from shelter when lightning starts coming down. There were also some intense stream crossings towards the end. We cross water all the time, and sometimes it’s tricky to stay dry but it’s usually manageable. There were a couple spots today though where you literally had to jump from rock to wet, slippery rock. All part of the fun.

Kay had researched the area and we drove over to Blacksburg, Va, home of Virginia Tech. This is the biggest town we’ve since Gatlinburg, and Gatlinburg wasn’t really a town but a tourist trap. Spurgered out at Five Guys, took a shower, writing this, and off to bed. 20 miles again tomorrow. We’re doing triple the mileage of when we started, crazy.

Here’s a link for a video of the hiker parade, we’re at the end. You can see Gentle G pretty well, I’ve got my hood up because I recently took a water gun to the ear: https://youtu.be/Q8iaHQu8NSM