Day 26-Another Tower to Climb

April 13-6.8 miles-AT mile marker 285.9

Wow! What a storm last night! Tons of rain, thunder and lightning! It pretty much rained the entire night. Everything that was in the vestibule of my tent was muddy and wet, including my shoes. 

It took a bit longer to pack up, and we left about 9:00. We’ll, I left at 9:00. Sure Foot says, no matter what, when I am ready to go, he is still taking down his tent. But, he always catches up to me before I know it. It works out well. 

We only had 6.8 miles, but there were some good climbs. If our packs didn’t have 9 days of food in them, the climbs wouldn’t seem so hard!

I went by a pond not far into the day. 

It was dammed up by that wall. With all the rain, the pond was spilling over. 

Just after the pond I came to a gravel road. The AT went on the road for a few 10ths of a mile. 

It led up to Mill Ridge where there was a trailhead parking lot, but we didn’t go up that way. 

Soon I was back on trail, and Sure Foot caught up to me shortly after. Later, we came to the side trail for Rich Mtn Fire Tower. It was .15 on a blue blaze trail. We decided to go up. There was a campsite below the last bit up to the tower, so we dropped our packs there, and walked up the rest of the way to the tower. It’s a fairly new tower with a cell tower right next to it. I asked Sure Foot if he thought we’d have service. 





Flat Will says...can you hear me now?

We made our way back to our packs. Since it was too windy and cold at that campsite, we continued down the trail to find a better spot for lunch. We found another campsite that was better, and ate our lunch (there was even a bench, but it was a little wobbly).

Wobbly bench. 

We saw three USFS trucks go by on a gravel road. The guys just waved to us. We still have this fear that someone is going to make us leave, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Really, the trickiest part is getting into towns for resupply, let alone showers and laundry (yes, I now refer to my pink shirt as my stinky pink shirt). 

We arrived at Spring Mtn Shelter around 2:45. Right now, the distances between either shelters or campsites are either too short or too long. Plus we have to consider the elevation. 

We are above the shelter itself on a nice flat spot. After filtering water, I heated up some, and washed up a bit (even used soap!). I put on clean unders, and washed the others. Feels good to be the tiniest bit clean. 

Supposed to be cold again tonight, so I’ll be sleeping with my filter again. 




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