Day 47

Flint Mountain Shelter to Stealth Site 12.5 miles – AT mile 321.3

Card of the day – Knight of Pentacles

So we had another evening of people coming in late with their head lights on full white beam!  What’s with that?  And naturally I was full of the joys of spring.

I was bitching and moaning to Beam, and said “there’s even a massive hill today”.  She replied “of course there is, there is always a massive hill”.

She then laughed at my bag packing strategy, which is essentially empty the contents of my tend onto the ground out side my tent, move every thing around a few times, then squeeze it all in some how.  Some days you win the bag game, some days you lose.

In any event I was out by 9 and hiking again.  So the strategy works?  (I’m not asking any one who gets out of camp in 30 mins for an answer here btw lol)

Bean and I hiked 3 miles in one hour!  We were on fire!  And what should be waiting for us at Devils Gap? Trail magic!

The trail magic was provide by Carolina mountain club.  Ann gave me beer and made my week!  She was waiting for me and said, oh you must be Cool Breeze, I hear you would like an Adult Beverage!  Hell yeh I would!  It’s 5 o’clock some where in the world right? And who doesn’t like a good beer buzz early in the morning?  Also it’s amazing how these acts of kindness can turn your mood around 180 degrees!

They also had pasta with fresh veg, Taco with Avocado, all the sugary treats you could wish for and … gas!  Can you believe that? (They also had Toilet Paper, which I did not see but Underhill got some and kindly gave it to me after I left Hot Springs with out any)

They warned us about the hill to come and as per recent form there was a massive up along a stream, which both beam and I slipped into and got one foot wet.  All in a days hike.  This was followed by a flat bit of dreams but it’s been mostly up for 3 miles!  These assents are really starting to get me down.  It’s been hard going for as long as o can remember.

In Sam’s gap there was fresh fruit for us, a group had set up trail magic but by the time we had got there it was all done.  The angels hiked up the trail and told us about the fruit that was left though.  This lead to the final assent of the day and we hit a stealth camp by 5pm.  Kegstand and Underhill were just sat having a break and when Beam and I got there I was like, you know, this is a good camp site. Let’s stay here?  We had originally planned to hike another 2 miles but we could all see the hill before us and there was no descent to the idea of staying.

And so the evening routine starts again, Tent up, fire and food!  Cheeto had joined the camp again and we discussed Ramon Bombs,  apparently half a packet of mash in a bomb is best!  And it turned out to be quite right.

As night drew in the only sound left was the raw of the road!  Night night.