Date: 2015-05-18
From: Stealth Camp at Trail Boss Trail

To: Jenny Knob Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: few clouds

It rained all night and I got up a little later than usual trying to wait it out. Amazingly, it worked! The next challenge was to get the food bags. The rain had tightened the knot to such an extent that I couldn't do it, and I had to get Yoda's help. An embarrassing start of the day! In a complete reversal, the sun was shining when we broke camp and had breakfast. The hike today looked similar to yesterday's, with long ridge walks and minimal views. There was one listed at 2 miles in but I never saw it. I did see a nice view of the low clouds in the valley somewhere else though.We were to get across interstate 77 today, by way of some obscure road. So there was some road walking involved, with confusing markings. At one section we could go along the road or follow a trail up on a hill. Naturally, I thought I should follow the trail, but it petered our right on top, and someone had formed the words 'bleep bloop' out of rocks. Fortunately, there was a way to get back down to the road and get to the portion that actually crossed I-77. It was a bit surreal to be on an overpass with semis flying by below.I had a hard time finding where the trail went back into the woods too, but then Yoda caught up to me and we figured it out. There was a pretty long waterless stretch so we filled up as well. When we passed Halveys Mill shelter it was still too early for lunch and the shelter was too far off the trail anyway, with the water source another .3 miles. No thanks!During lunch (crackers with pb&j, not one of my more glamorous lunches) another hiker caught us after returning from Trail Days. Yoda knew him from their very early days of the hike.Usually, the guide lists some sort of landmark every couple of miles. Rarely is there nothing for more than 3 or 4 miles. Today, the ridge walk had nothing, no streams, springs, views, intersecting trails, shelters, road crossings, named peaks, nothing, for seven miles! That is a long way to go landmarkless. I killed some time trying to come up with a comparison for the size of the teeny blister on my hand. In the end, I decided 'the size of an engorged deer tick' was just right. Altogether now: "eeeeewwwww!" But shortly after the landmark drought ended (road crossing) we also hit 600 miles. Yoda was embellishing the sign someone had already made when I got there. When she was finished, pictures were taken. Between lunch and the 600 mile point, we had been rained on a couple of times, but neither was all that serious. I find it hard to decide whether to put on a rain jacket and/or rain pants because often the rain is just a sprinkle or only lasts a few minutes. Today I made the wrong decision twice. The last time it rained, I was close to the shelter and thought I'd just ride it out. And then it was a downpour and I got soaked to the skin. Fortunately it stopped raining as I arrived and I had a chance to set up camp and dry out. But I am pretty sure tomorrow morning will involve putting on wet clothes. Such a lovely start to look forward to!As a side note, I have had great reception so have seen all the comments, but my battery capacity doesn't allow me to respond until I'm in town. Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?