Day 53

Day 53, 6/20/23

Fullhardt Knob Shelter to Cove Mountain Shelter

20 miles, mile 755.3

It poured last night and I was very thankful to have slept in the shelter. I caved and finally got instant coffee at the Kroger because I miss having coffee in the morning so much. I didn’t get any powdered cream or sugar packs and it was surprisingly not bad black. It did make my morning more enjoyable and that’s all you can really ask for out here. Last night was only the third time we have slept inside a shelter on trail, I definitely prefer my tent, except for when it’s raining. Putting away a wet tent in the morning is one of my least favorite things. We did get lucky, it stopped raining in the morning and we had some views along the Blue Ridge Parkway! Early in the day we met someone named Trekking Pole, at first I didn’t really get it and then we found out he is from Poland. It is one of my favorite trail names we have heard. When we got to the first view point along the parkway there were a lot of hawks soaring around and it was really cool to see. Because of all the rain there were a lot of red efts on the trail. When we were little we called them “orange buddies” and still do to this day! I moved the orange buddies off trail with a leaf so they wouldn’t get stepped on. We caught up to a decent size group and they said they are at the tail end of the bubble, so we should be seeing a lot more thru-hikers soon. The rain held off until we got to this shelter and there are four people in here at the moment. Tomorrow looks to be like a lot of elevation and pouring rain, but we can do it!