Day 2 - march 26 2017

Day 2

March 26 Sunday

Miles today 11.7 (Liz 12.7)

Total miles 14.5

Stover campsite to devils kitchen 

Today we went from stover campsite (at 2.8 miles) to devils kitchen (at 14.5 miles) It was further than we had itnitally planned to go; we had first planned to go to hawks mtn campsite (at mile 8.1) but it was pretty early when we got there so we decided to press on but we had gotten intel from one of the trail volunteers/ridge runners that there was no good reliable water sources for 7 miles past hawks, so whatever we did we needed enough water to last us.  And it was accurate!  Luckily we filled up right before hawks and good thing we made it to devils because we were at our last drops when we got here.  In the middle of the day we had stopped at a newer campsite area with a privy (fancy name for outdoor pit toilets with walls) we used and then had lunch and left.  We stopped to refill our water when I realized I had left some gear 0.5 miles back at the campsites.  I dropped my stuff and ran back while Brayden waited for me. Luckily I was able to retrieve my gear and it didn't take that long and we pressed forward to devils kitchen.  When we finally got there late, there are stairs down to the river and then up the other side.  Previously we had considered stopping a few times before we got here because my stomach had a party I wasn't invited to but hopefully that's over now.  We had passed an open site on one side on the double stair case and up the other double stairs to check out available sites only to find there was no sites available haha.  I didn't have it in me to push on the next mile to gooch shelter because i wasn't feeling well so back down and up the staircases to the other site.  Only the next day when we ran into some other campers did we learn I guess there was a sign somewhere saying not to camp on that side of the river....oopsie.  We never saw said sign though.  And that campsite was awesome haha, we had it all to ourselves so the dogs could be off leash and we could spread out. 

Weather today was nice, with spots of spitting to slightly heavier rain but nothing that lasted.  It was quite breezy but it felt good because it wasn't too cold.  Periods of sunshine but mostly overcast.  Hoping for continued weather days like today.  

Day 3 we are planning to spilt the distance to neels gap instead of pressing on in one day.  We are planning to go woody gap 6.3 miles away which is the last good water souce before neels.