Editor’s correction from yesterday – major major apology, the song stuck in my head was the theme song from Full House, not Family Matters.
Anyway, today the morning was really nice, but we knew some rainy weather was headed our way. The hike started with some trails and climbs up through farmland and then along some mountain cascades.
Cascade o' the mountains
Morning trail climbing to Lick Rock
We had a nice partial view later from High Rock.
High Rock
The trail then descended down under I-26, which sounded pretty busy with traffic. It was one of those days where the trail went from seemingly remote wilderness to farmland to highway and then back to wilderness.
I-26. I've heard these things are for cars.
Shortly after we crossed here we started getting rained on. We climbed up Big Bald, which was a gigantic bald, as the rain and wind intensified. Thankfully it wasn’t a thunderstorm or we would not have been able to traverse the very exposed bald.
Wind ram jammin Katie's poncho
Err mah gerd rain selfie
Some of Big Bald
Other mountains in view off Big Bald
It would have been cool to hang out there, but we kept pushing on due to the showers.
Later in the day we contemplated stopping hiking around 20 miles, but since it wasn’t really raining anymore we pushed on. Of course, shortly after that fateful decision it started down pouring like a mother. Oops! We hiked for total of about 22 miles today and eventually found a little meadow right outside Spivey Gap and got the tarp setup and dried out. No biggie and all part of the adventure.
Rules of cooking partially under the tarp - stay dry, don't inhale fumes, don't light tarp on fire
Tomorrow after about 10 miles we head to a hostel/outfitter called Uncle Johnny’s that’s basically right on the trail near Erwin, TN. It’s undecided if we are going to stay there or just grab resupply box #4 and push on (probably depends on how crappy the weather is).
Vital stats :
Mood – pretty good considering rainy weather and all
Physical state – the normal after a long day of hiking, tired feet and legs
Smell – really old and really wet cheese?
Song stuck in my head – morning was Mother We Share by Chvrches, but somehow Roar by Katy Perry has snuck in there now (ugh B104 signal probably broadcasts down here in Tennessee)
So wonderful to see you both hale and hearty does a mommy’s heart good. You two are amazing uber hikers. So proud of you both!!! In my reading I understand VA will be not much of a challenge vertically only monotony to battle. Cadence helps left,left right left I had a good…..blank….. But I,they it left, left right left. Dad can supply more salty cadence. Not suitable for PG reading. He says hi.
I have to ask…how did you figure out the song in your head was from Full House and not from Family Matters? Did your head tell you? Did you sing it and Katie told you? Did you get a message from Mars or another planet? Just wondering! Glad to hear from you. Thank you for the Face Time tonight! It’s so good to know that you are well and are writing these posts yourself and not having someone else make them up on your behalf so we think you are well! 🙂 Keep up the steady hiking and stay well. We look forward to hearing from you! Sending positive thoughts, prayers and love.