Date: 2014-04-12
From: Stealth Site (~Vandeventer Shelter)

To: Backbone Rock Trail
Miles today: 28.3

The plan to catch the sunrise at the shelter fell apart as the six-hour night last night caught up to us. There was still quite a view as we hiked along the ridge arriving at Vandeventer Shelter only half an hour later than planned. We arrived as most people were packing up and heading out and had the place mostly to ourselves for breakfast. The view from behind the shelter was more than enough to start the day off right, although that was slightly dampened by running my head into the shelter not once, but twice in the course of a minute.Rabbit's ankle had if anything gotten a bit worse and we took the morning at a lighter pace. It was the first time I had really hiked with Rabbit (not counting the night before) and certainly enjoyed trading life stories, conspiracy theories, and views on spirituality. While we were conversing I was trying to figure out what The Princess Tour was up to as well. Via Trix we had been offered an 8.5 slackpack between TN 91 and Low Gap but it didn't appear we would be getting there in time to take advantage of that. I asked her to thank them but let them know we were moving slow and would do our own thing. Thinking that was wrapped up we took a lunch break with Grasshopper, Money Maker, and Redwood. Redwood had started the same day we had, had hiked with some of the same groups we did, and yet we had never met. Pretty crazy how you can be part of such a small community and still never be sure you know everyone in it.A little after 2:00 we passed Nan who informed us her husband was at the parking lot just ahead doing trail magic and that there was a woman in a red SUV looking for us there - the Princess Tour! Trail magic snacks are enough to get even someone on a twisted ankle picking up their pace and in no time at all we could see the lot begin to appear between the trees. But lo! Just before the parking lot was another chest of trail magic goodies! We filled up there briefly and then walked the last 20 yards to meet up with Flash, Trix, Redwood, Wolf, Money Maker, and Grasshopper. Flash was the last bit of convincing Rabbit needed to yellow blaze into town and take care of his ankle before it put him off the trail. Trix joined them for a ride over to Low Gap, and I just stuck to the trail.It was my first time really hiking alone in a while, as well as what promised to be my longest day yet and I was loving it. The sun was still high when I left at 3:00 and I was flying down the trail in high spirits - loving the feeling of just going. I arrived at Low Gap right at 5:00 with water bottles completely dry. After looking around for where the trail picked back up I was guided over to the trailhead by Polar Bear, the third trail angel of the day. He was out of snacks by that time but had enough water to get me the five miles to the next shelter which was all I needed.I saw sloth for the first time since the Smokies at the next shelter which was pretty exciting. He told me Trix had blown through without filling up on water, such a n00b mistake given that there was no water between there and where we were camping. I hiked down to the water source (the steepest section I had done all day) and filled up everything before hitting the trail again. Three miles later I saw that she had realized her folly and was considering going on to the next site listed with water. I had already invested too much in the water on my back though and was having none of that. She had already left the first campsite though and we compromised camping just a bit down a side trail. My feet were beginning to feel the almost 30 miles day and she kindly came back to meet me and take some of the weight the last bit in to camp.