It was another cool, foggy, windy day—beautiful in its own way.
I passed many interesting sounding points today but saw very little: Cash Hollow, Spy Rock, Salt Log Gap, Tar Jacket Ridge, and Cole Mountain Bald.
At one point I stopped to get a drink of water and, after a few seconds, heard a loud flapping nearby. A very large bird took flight. It looked like a turkey and worked hard to get just above the trees and away from me.
I passed a tall hiker mid morning and we stopped for a minute to chat. He was the first NOBO thru hiker I have seen since I restarted. His trail name was Flash and he said he started his hike on Feb 25th.
The hike today was a series of small ups and downs that stayed between 3000-4000 ft. No major climbs or descents which was a nice break after Priest Mountain yesterday. I had time so I stopped at Seely-Woolworth Shelter for a hot lunch.
I was the only one around. It occurred to me that, at some point, I will intersect for some time with the NOBO “herd” as it is sometimes called. The solitude will be broken but I kind of look forward to that at this point.
In the afternoon I passed three more NOBO hikers but didn’t get to talk. Then I was alone again for the rest of the afternoon and merrily cruising along on autopilot, until I realized I had passed up a water source I planned to use.
These things happen and force you into a decision: backtrack or push forward and run out of water before you should. It was about a quarter mile back to the spring, which may as well have been five miles because I wasn’t turning around if at all possible. The next water was more than 5 miles ahead but was another 0.3 miles (0.6 round trip) off trail. Another side trip to avoid at all costs. Luckily the terrain was easy and the day was cool, overcast, and windy. I decided to skip the next one and push on the the shelter another 8+ miles or so from where I was. I had a lot of water at lunch and then tanked up again at the next water source after lunch, so I was thankfully well hydrated. At this point I had about 1/8th liter of water which needed to last about 3+ hours. Normally that amount would be gone within 1/2 hour.
Even thirsty I am a sucker for a beautiful fungus and, apparently, will stop for pictures.
But I made it to the shelter in good shape and thankful for the cool weather. After getting a big load of water I made dinner and bedded down for what would turn out to be an evening of entertainment by the resident mice. But at this point I was blissfully unaware of what the next few hours held in store. .
And here are some of the other interesting things I saw along the way today.
Lichen and mosses 
