{"id":302,"date":"2014-05-03T20:17:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T00:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnatow.com\/wordpress-happytrails\/?p=302"},"modified":"2014-05-03T20:17:38","modified_gmt":"2014-05-04T00:17:38","slug":"day-18-tri-corner-shelter-to-spanish-oak-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hnatow.com\/happytrails\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"Day 18 – Tri-Corner Shelter to Spanish Oak Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK last night was definitely the coldest night. Sleeping in the Smokies in damp pine forests at 6000+ feet elevation is quite chilly. Our food bags, which are hung on cables outside near the shelters, were frosted over this morning. I slept in shorts again. What is wrong with me?
\nWe spent most of the day descending out of the park. This was a long 7+ mile descent from 6000+ down to around 1000 feet, but it wasn’t too steep at any one point thankfully. We had a few nice views on the way down, but nothing like the last couple days.
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Tennessee<\/p><\/div>\n

Still, there are a lot of subtle cool things out here besides the ridiculous views.<\/p>\n

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Water that is falling<\/p><\/div>\n

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Funky rocks<\/p><\/div>\n


\nMore importantly, we scored insanely awesome trail magic from some 2007 thru-hikers from Asheville. I love these trail angels. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning as a kid when you hike down into a gap after 8 hours of tough hiking and someone is standing there with a grill giving you free hot dogs, hamburgers, soda, oreos, doritos, etc. I was day dreaming about hot dogs the last few days and they appeared like an oasis in the desert thanks to these folks.<\/p>\n

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It's a good thing I am exercising 10 hours a day<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, it was a nice day and we pushed on despite their protests to have all the hikers including us hang out and drink beer with them all night. That was tough to pass up, but we want to get to Hot Springs, NC early on Monday. We ended up hiking around 21.4 miles today, so we’re definitely getting more comfortable pushing consecutive big mileage days. I think all the training hikes we did in the crappy weather in Rocksylvania must have helped. Tomorrow we’re planning another 20+ mileage day and then a nice nearo \/ resupply day is planned for Monday in Hot Springs.
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\nVital stats :<\/strong>
\nMood – chilling
\nPhysical state – same…sore feet\/legs but feeling stronger by the day
\nSmell – rancid dog food mixed with cheese and sweet and sour sauce
\nSong stuck in my head – Close Enough by Ghost Beach<\/p>\n

PS – thanks for all the comments on the posts, we read them all and greatly appreciate them and your support!<\/p>\n

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