Date: 2017-09-05
From: Rhemus Residence

To: John's Spring Shelter 
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: clear sky

I got up around 6:30 and sorry to getting dressed and organized. I then went downstairs. Dave had started to prepare breakfast, & I had a cup of coffee and watched the news with him for a while. So he got up shortly after that and we ate breakfast together. I had pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup as well as bacon and eggs over easy. It was excellent! During breakfast we talked a lot about what it was like to be hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Afterward Susie took a picture of Dave and me.Dave then drove me back to the trailhead and along the way pointed out the train across which I would be hiking today. He dropped me off at the Howard Johnsons where was lying I refilled our water bottles and then started South at about 9:15 a.m.The morning hike was initially St Paul Hill climb to the top of a Ridgeline a long which we walked 4 miles. There were several spots from which I could see a long way. Pictures. Original answer come navigate today large reservoir and took us to the west and South. Along the way we caught up with and past papa bear and puffy muffin.Eventually we came to the Lamberts meadow shelter. Their we refilled all our water. This we were told would be the last place we would find reliable water on the trail for the next 30 miles. We also had lunch. We also met southbound through hiker Stewart. He was a veterinarian from Atlanta. He had started the hike last year and gotten all the way from Mount Katahdin and main to Buena Vista Virginia. Very had to get off the trail because of foot injuries. He started again at Boynton Vista this year and was headed south. For lunch, I ate 3 pieces of pizza left over from yesterday's visit to Pizza Hut, which wisely head stored in his hotel room fridgerator for me. I also eight three pieces of bacon which Susie had given me and leftovers from this morning breakfast.After lunch we started up hill again. There would be too more 1000 foot climbs before we would reach McAfee's knob. We were hoping that he weather would hold out for us. There were predictions of 55% chance of rain and a possibility of sooner store for this afternoon. Wesleyan I had talked about potentially stopping at the Campbell shelter prior to McAfee's knob, in order to let the weather pass. Then we could try to hike through the most photograph part of the trail hopefully in a better day tomorrow. However, our preferred course would be to hike to Maxie's know of and Beyond and stay at the Catawba shelter on the far side. That would be a total of approximately 18 miles for today.After the first large climb of the afternoon I reached tinker cliffs. From here there were awesome views. Picture. And a distance, to the west, we could see McAfee knob, where we hope to be later today. Stewart pointed it out and said from there you'll be looking back to the east and you should be able to see tinker cliffs where were standing now. I guess that was sometime between 2 and 2:30 p.m. I we continued hiking, and the trail followed a semi circular Ridgeline to the left and back to the right from East to west around the southern end of the valley. Sometime between 2:30 and 3 we started to hear thunder and we could see dark grey clouds forming over to the western sky line. This sounds in the dark ending sky got closer as we continued hiking. Wesleyan hi discussed ever options, and we decided to aim for the Campbell shelter. Then we would reassess the situation there. We quickened our pace and I pressed on through the burning sensation in my legs, figuring that's we were about to get wet but the sooner I arrived at the shelter that less wet I would be.We arrived at Campbell shelter sometime around 3:30 p.m. and head only felt a few drops of rain. I consulted the weather and radar apps on my phone. It looked like they're was a massive line precipitation approaching from the west about to hit the West side of the Appalachian Mountain chain all the way from Georgia to Pennsylvania. However examining in detail the area around the blue Point indicating our position on the map, I could see their was actually a hole in the weather pattern, perhaps the Lee of some significant terrain feature to the west of us. This appeared to be providing an area of clear skies in the area through which we needed to walk. So we decided to continue.It was only .7 miles from Campbell shelter to McAfee nope. We reached it around for p.m. and we stayed there for a while, taking pictures. Then we continued on. We decided to pass up the Catawba Mountain shelter, and we continued to the Johns spring shelter, 1 mile further. We arrive there around 5:30 p.m.Tired. Sore. Hot. Thirsty. Glad to have a little "extra" time before dark. Dinner. Bed.