Day: 36

Yesterday’s Goals:

I want to hike about twenty or so miles tomorrow

Activities of The Day:

 

Once I got to sleep around two this morning, I slept great. I had to switch to my summer bag halfway through the night and use my winter as a blanket again, but life was good. I did end up sleeping in till ten this morning,

Then I talked myself into drying out my rain flap, ground tarp, and tent. That led to everything getting packed up. I started hiking around noon. With a big climb right from the start, I had trouble wanting to hike today. About halfway up the first mountain, I encounter a horse rider. His arrival at the trailhead is the reason I woke up. He went on an hour-long ride out on the trail and was on his way back to the trailer. We discussed where the trail went and a few other things before going our way. His horse looked tired and wet. I knew stream crossings were coming; the way the horse looked, they would be deep crossings.

First Water Cross

I heard the water flowing way before I saw the water. There were several falls or cascades after the crossing that I was walking towards. I could see them, but taking a picture would have been pointless because Mother Nature was in Mother Nature’s way.

I spent most of my day on a dirt road; the trail would be either below, on, or above this dirt road. I opted to stay on the flat, easily travelable road. My knee thanked me. As the day went along, I encountered several more waterfalls.

Waterfall

Waterfall

I came across so many that I just stopped taking photos. The picture below is cascades at a water crossing.

Water Crossing number two

After this crossing was a chimney standing in the middle of nowhere.

Chimney

Some more cascades for you.

 

I could not find a groove today at all. My body did great; my new shoes are perfect. I couldn’t get into hiking today. A couple of guys in a jeep came up the road I was walking on. They stopped and talked to me for a few moments. I guess one of them is a bike rider and was up here last weekend riding and wanted to go back to an area he was at. I could understand because that area is a perfect camping area. I looked at FarOut to tell them how far it was away. To my surprise, it was less than two miles. That broke my heart, and I felt that I had walked way further than that. Maybe tomorrow, I can find a grove and get some miles done.

I am camping at another water crossing tonight as I have already crossed five streams. Knowing I would put wet socks on in the morning anyway, I decided to camp here and get them freshly wet in the morning. It looks like I will be crossing another creek about a half mile down the trail anyway. The cascades where I am camping are loud. I hope that I will get a good night’s rest, though.

What’s Ahead:

I have decided that my new quitting time is now 5:30. With the Eastern time zone, the sun stays up longer than in the Central time zone. I have wanted to change this since I got to Georgia, and now it’s official.

The first thing I have to do is wake up on time! A rushing creek must be crossed as soon as I start hiking so I’ll have wet feet all day. My shoes and socks are already soaked, so I will have wet feet either way. Then, it looks like a dirt road, walking for several miles until the trail cuts back into the woods.

Tomorrow evening, the weather is calling for rain all night and the next day. I will have to find a spot to camp that I will be happy with for over 24 hours. I’m sure it’ll be a fun day of hiking!

 

Goals:

 

Get up on time and hike till 5:30

Stats:

Mileage of the day: 10
Mileage on Trail: 321/350
Days on Trail: 35
Number of Zero’s: 5 (no miles hiked)
Number of Nero’s:4 (less than five miles hiked)
States: Alabama, Georgia
Trails completed:
The good: Slept in and still got ten miles
The Bad: Wet feet
Thank you for following along!