September 2

Distance: 26.6 miles | Ascent: 6220′ | Descent: 3471′

Mile marker: 1196.1

Lunch: J&A – Mountain House biscuits and gravy (A, A)

Dinner: J – mac n cheese (A-), A – chili and rice (B+)

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Today was a mundane day. It feels a bit wrong to write that because this is supposed to be an epic journey of heroism and adventure, but some days are just a little tedious. Most days, we find or run across something interesting, sure. But today was just a lot of climbing in heat and relatively high humidity. We climbed over a mile of ascent in total. And, the trail was boxed in by trees without any views almost the entire time.

We woke up at dawn and were lucky to have a pit toilet at the nearby trailhead – luxury! After a brief breakfast and coffee to prep us for what we knew would be a hard day, we departed our pretty creekside campsite and started a 15 mile climb.

We crossed a few dirt roads, but those aren’t particularly exciting. We crossed a beautiful river with a great bridge. That was a highlight! We came across another box of trail magic, but most of it was already picked through, and we had just resupplied, so we didn’t take anything.

There was a lizard.

We stopped by a creek for lunch. By then, we only passed by four people. Then we climbed some more. We stopped a few more times for water. A deer came to inspect us during one break. It was probably looking for sweat or urine (gross). Then we climbed some more.

We stopped by a creek for dinner. It was getting late. As we ate, three others passed by and told us of the great views ahead. Unfortunately, by the time we made it up to the very top, it was dark and thunderstorms were threatening. The rockface we walked along seemed pretty, but we only saw it with the light of our headlamps.

We finally made it to camp in the dark. There was a spring 500 ft away, but our legs refused to go any farther than our campsite. We will get water tomorrow. As we made camp, we were surprised to see another hiker emerging from the dark trees, coming from the spring. We chatted a bit about the trail before he headed onwards, ready to tackle at least a few more miles. Maybe he is nocturnal.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad day. It just wasn’t eventful. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring more adventure, or at least something more picture worthy.