Date: 2015-05-24
From: Designated Camp Site at 668.0

To: Niday Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: broken clouds

Today was a bit rough at the beginning and the end, but there were some redeeming parts in the middle. I guess it'll have to do. Last night, after I had gone to bed but while it was still light out, another hiker came into camp. Yoda helpfully pointed out the 386 possible camping areas but somehow the most desirable spot was right in front of us. I have no idea what that was about but at least her dog was very well behaved. And she had hiked 5 miles longer than planned to avoid someone at the previous shelter. We all knew who she was talking about and completely understood. The man is the king of giving unsolicited advice, which gets very old very quickly.I slept ok, but had a sore throat during the night that I forgot about by morning.Since we avoided the climb late in the day yesterday, we pretty much started with it right out of the gate this morning. At least that got me warmed up, because it has been fairly chilly in the morning the last two days.After the climb there was a reasonably short ridge walk and then a view at Kelly Knob. It wasn't even that great a view (for us jaded hikers) but it was nice to have one anyway.We walked through some beautiful Virginia farmland on our way to the Keffer Oak, a very large and very old oak tree. It is not, however, a very photogenic oak tree, at least not for me. We had lunch nearby and I realized I was coming down with a cold. That explained why I was so grumpy! There was a short but quite nasty climb after lunch but after that we thought the hard part was over. So naive we are, even after eight weeks!The second ridge walk of the day gave us some great views, or more of an extended but interrupted view of the same valley and mountains across, which was cool. But you had to walk over slanted slabs of rock to follow the trail in that section and that made my feet unhappy. I also realized today that Cranky Knee hasn't made an appearance in a long time, giving more credence to my theory that it was caused by the evil insoles I bought in Gatlinburg. Yay for the continued absence of Cranky Knee!We passed the sign for the Eastern Continental Divide, where water goes to either the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. And then it was less than three miles of downhill but somehow everyone here in camp commented on how hard it was. My poor feet.The shelter is very overcrowded, which hasn't happened in a while. All decent and not so decent tent spots are taken. I really prefer to camp in non-shelter sites, but water availability as well as camp site availability have made that hard to do in this part of Virginia.The next 40 or so miles are challenging in this respect also, so we may come up with weird short days followed by long days to make sure we a) get a good look at the sights coming up preferably without holiday crowds but with good weather (a tall order with the forecast) and b) we don't have to stay at shelters all the time. We'll still get to Daleville in the next few days and my main planning concern is for when Gary meets us at 842.5! (Not 840.5 as previously reported).We're still figuring out possible camping logistics, so stay tuned. And fingers crossed my cold goes away!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?