Day 44-Happy May Day, and Another 16 Miler

May 1-16 miles-Iron Mtn Shelter to Abingdon Gap Shelter-AT mile 460.5

It pretty much rained the whole night, into the morning, and most of the hike today. I’m getting pretty good at packing things up in the rain. I get everything in my pack in my tent, then haul it out of the tent, and put the pack cover over the top while I take down my tent. 

We planned to get on the trail at 8:00, as we had another 16 mile day today. I was ready to go at 8:00, so I started walking. As usual, Sure Foot caught up to me before too long. The trail was pretty easy for most of the day...gentle ups, easy downs, and a fair amount of flat trail. Once Sure Foot caught up to me, I suggested we have lunch at Double Springs Shelter because it was raining. It was 7.7 miles from where we had stayed. Normally, 7.7 miles before lunch would mean a late lunch. Not today. 

Early in the morning I got ahead of SF again. I came down to a road. Across the road, the trail headed into a pasture. 

I walked up the trail, and as I came over the hill, I saw another iconic AT sight. 

I couldn’t remember where this barn was. Well, it is here in Tennessee! The views through the pasture would have probably been pretty good had it been a nice day. As it was, it was foggy and raining. But, there were a couple of decent photo ops. 

Okay, maybe not decent. In fact, this probably looks miserable to some. 

It took me a moment to figure out how to work this latch to the gate. 

The mist was rolling across the pasture. 

Sure Foot caught up to me again near the end of the pasture. As we headed back into the woods, SF pointed out one of my favorite things...a rock against a tree. It makes a very good seat with a back. Moments later, I found a seat for Sure Foot. 

For some reason, he didn’t think it looked very comfortable??? Okay, maybe it was a little spiky, but it had a backrest tree! 

We made it to lunch at the shelter at 11:45. It’s always nice to be able to sit out of the rain for lunch. I think we walked in the rain for another couple of hours or so. It finally stopped raining, and we could actually see something besides fog. 



Ah...there is sun down there in the valley!

We made it to Abingdon Gap Shelter after passing the derelict shelter called Queens Knob Shelter. It is no longer in use (except for emergencies).

The wind would definitely whistle through those walls. 

We arrived here at 4:00. That means our average was more than 2 miles/hour today! Of course, the lack of elevation changes (there was some, but nothing over 500 feet at a time) had a lot to do with it, but we were pretty proud of ourselves, especially since it was our second 16 miler in a row. 

Tomorrow we will get into Damascus, Virginia. We have about 11 miles. The Broken Fiddle Hostel is open. 






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