May 3 2017 Wednesday
Miles today 6.7
Total miles 349.4
Super 8 in Erwin to trailhead to stealth site 1.4 miles south of Indian grave gap
Today we left Erwin super 8 and planned to hike as far as we felt after having the first day back after a zero day and a 13 mile climb ahead of us. We ate bojangles for our last time since we had been craving it over a month. We spoke to a bus driver for one of the local rafting companies and told him some trail stories and he asked us questions about the trail and our packs etc. We then called Doug to see if he could give us a ride and swing us by the post office on the way out, and mal got new sunglasses. We had gotten such great boxes from our family and friends that we bounced ahead items so we might minimize our resupply in about a week.
We picked up our hike at johnnys hostel and the first few miles were pretty flat considering the climb we thought we had coming. There were still some steep sections and Brayden and I were taking our time. We meet up late with Mal and X at the shelter and decided to press on for at least a little bit since we've grown to like the peace of the stealth camping. We found a great spot just short of Indian grave gap with a fire ring and it wasn't too late in the day so we had time to make a fire and enjoy it. Brayden and I did the food right too and brought subway sandwiches in for our dinner and I had some of the cookie from Pizza Hut left and everyone was jealous and lessons were learned. We met a thru hiker who was completing his triple crown; meaning he had completed the pacific crest trail (PCT) and continental divide trail (CDT) and was working on completing the Appalachian trail (AT). He had come all the way from florida though, by FOOT! His trail name was scalywag and he had started his journey by completing all or part of the Florida trail, 200 miles of road walking, piecing together some other trails and the getting on the AT April 7th. He said he had to make good time as well because he was planning to finish his trail not just in Maine but in Quebec, Canada! He said you had to get there even earlier than the Maine deadline so it was sort of neat we even ran into him. He was traveling light and I wish I could have picked his brain some more on that aspect but he had plenty of trail stories to tell and ask about ours. He was stoveless and was presoak/rehydrating food in a peanut butter jar and then adding a tuna packet to it at camp for dinner. We had ran across and picked up firestarters at johnnys hostel and had made a good fire. Another couple of hikers passed by and Cubs stopped to camp near us as well and hung out around the fire for a bit. We all turned in around our usual time and I slept pretty well until we decided to put the rain fly on around 3 am due to gusty winds but I fell back asleep pretty well too the morning. Until tomorrow, happy trails.
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