Day 24

Wine Spring Camp to Cold Spring Gap 7.8 Miles.  AT mile 125.6

Card of the day – 3 cups

Our day today again started like something out of gorillas in the mist.  It was a lazy start from camp, with us getting on trail just after 10:00.

Today’s path had tree roots that will snap your ankle or make you slip to your bum!  Fortunately, neither of these things happen.

At the top of the hill, we again proved that you should take the views when you can, because we had none!  Unless you include clouds, which were beautiful in their own way, I suppose.

Climbing all the way to the top, though hard, was worth it.  There was a real toilet, well a very posh privy anyway, and the toilet paper was padlocked in.  I guess they know their crowd.

To get up there, there were again some of those steps that make you lift your arms so high you smell you!

The guys, Brick, Slip and Slide, Catnap, and Chris met us with beers!!!  This was possibly the best trail magic of all time!  Good friends and good beer.

Unfortunately, there was no view at the fire tower; oh, and there is a car park at the top!  Turns out you can drive to the fire tower!  Just like normal people would do!  But not us Thru-Hikers!

After taking in the views, we made our way down another steep section but found a nice lunch stop and more beers shared.  This is becoming a thing.  I’m not complaining.

The beer sure helped with the killer hill that followed and totally kicked my ass.  But we had more views.  North Carolina is sure providing the views.

The last few days I’ve been noticing the burnt trees all around.  I really like the blue tone that you get on the burnt wood at the side of trail.

For the last mile, Catnap set the pace and nearly killed me! But it also felt kinda good to get a march on.  There was also a wild turkey!  Due to said march, there was no way I would have been able to take a photo, so you will just need to take my word for it!

When we hit the shelter, Slip and Slide had pushed on to a campsite 0.2 up the way.  This turned out to be a good decision, as we had the place to ourselves.  We set up a fire and Underhill taught Chris and Kegstand to play the card game “Shithead.”

In other news, I throw my own bear line!  I’m so proud.