I didn’t hear a thing all night, except the creek, and woke up feeling pretty refreshed. I momentarily thought about trying to make it all the way to Bear Garden Hiker Hostel today, about 26 miles, but quickly banished the thought. There was no reason to rush and it would be better to break it up over two days.
It was almost light when I headed out from the lovely little campsite and followed the stream downhill until it merged with another, larger one at the bottom. One footbridge later and I was headed uphill again. The early part of the morning had me walking along the side of a ridge with fairly steep slopes on both the uphill and downhill sides of the trail. I imagined having to try and retrieve something that fell downhill…and resolved not to touch any gear until I was on more level ground.
Then, after a good long uphill, the AT guide mentioned the trail followed along the upper rim of an 8-mile long and 4-mile wide crater, or limestone sinkhole. I really wanted to see this thing, but unfortunately the views were fleeting and narrow through the trees. On the other side of the ridge I caught glimpses of lush farms in the valley and listened to cows below mooing as I hiked.
Then the final big climb of the day led to Chestnut Knob, a grassy mountain top with an old stone shelter and nice views toward the west. There were still no views of the crater to the east, but there was a clear view to the farm land to the west below. I stayed up there a long time enjoying the sunny, breezy afternoon.
I passed about twenty northbound hikers today and spoke to a few along the way. Here is “In A Day” hiking from Georgia back to her home state, Maine
“Legend” from Pennsylvania: thru hiking north with his 18-month old dog
The trail down from Chestnut Knob was several miles long and about a 2500 foot descent. I passed a few hikers on their way up and was glad to be headed downhill this late in the day. But those going up to camp up there were going to get quite a sunset and, most probably, a great sunrise too.
I crossed a series of small streams on my way down and finally arrived at a larger stream with a nice campsite right alongside it. There were two nicely spaced trees below the rhododendron canopy and I set up there, alone again for the night. I had a hot dinner then waded into the creek to splash some water around my lower body to wash off the trail dust and get cleaner before bed. It promised to be another clear night so I left the tarp in the backpack. I watched the sunset and saw the sky darken from inside my hammock. I was less than 6 miles from the hostel and am hoping to be there before noon tomorrow.
And here are some of the other interesting things I passed on my hike today.
