Another big mileage day for us on the warmest day so far. It was a gorgeous sunny day again with clear blue sky's and the temperature around 70°F/21°C. We left Standing Bear Farm at 8:30 and it was a hard five mile slog uphill, about 2500ft ascent, up to Snowbird Mountain then down 1300ft again to Deep Gap. I felt lacking in energy this morning, Nigel was fine but then in the afternoon our energy levels reversed and I had more energy and Nigel was tired. I think I'd eaten more snacks to keep me going!
Nigel saw a wild turkey this morning, I only heard it running away. A butterfly was fluttering around me in the afternoon, I don't know what type but it was black with white edges around the wing. It seems too early in the year for butterflies?
From Deep Gap it was another 6 mile long uphill, 2000+ft, to Max Patch summit 4629ft. A fantastic 'Bald' - a grassy mountain top with no trees, a completely different type of terrain which made a refreshing change. There were a handful of people sat relaxing on the grassy banks at the top. There were fantastic views from the top and we could see back to The Smokey mountains. There was a strong but warm wind on the top though. Coming off the Bald and back into the woods we got off the trail somehow, there were a few paths and we followed the wrong one, only for a couple of minutes luckily before we realised and managed to relocate the 'white blazes' and get back on track. It was back to Oak/Rhododendron forest again and a very steady downhill for just under 8 miles.
We stopped and refilled our water bottles a couple of times during the day, filtering water from streams, we were drinking a lot more in the heat. Forwarned today was going to be a warm day we had both put on our lighter weight summer walking trousers thankfully, our warmer winter weather softshell trousers we have been wearing would have been very uncomfortable. Nigel is already suffering with a bit of inner thigh chaffing from his warmer softshell trousers. Standing Bear Farm shop yesterday had the perfect cream for him - Butt Aid - 'Relief for the unhappy butt!' it says on it! It seems to be easing his chafe!
Of course the day wouldn't be complete without one last mile and a half uphill to our shelter/camp spot for the night, Walnut Mountain Shelter, we arrived at 6:15pm. Nine and three quarter hours we were on our feet today, too long! Seven to eight hours is our preferred maximum time to be on our feet. We opted for a longer day though so that tomorrow we have only 13 miles to hike to Hot Springs town where we plan on taking our second zero day. We could have split the mileage and hiked two 17 mile days but it's always nice to get into a town early afternoon rather than too late in the day, plus the weather is forecast for rain/snow sometime tomorrow so we wanted to try and arrive before then.
There was a young student couple already at the shelter when we arrived. It's only a small shelter so we were happy to camp in our tent and let them have the shelter. They offered us some of their leftover pasta, they had cooked too much, which was very kind of them. We'd already had our dinner but 'hiker hunger' is kicking in so I happily accepted some extra pasta, Nigel declined, he was full from the dehydrated meal sample we got from Uncle Fools Jerky.
Its a nice warm evening, the first evening we've not needed to wear our down jackets, hats and gloves! During the night we were taking layers off too we were too warm, we've been so used to tucking ourselves in our sleeping bags layered up. The 'wind train' appeared in the night again too, quite gusty winds, we could here them coming up and around the mountain, blast us and then it would go all calm again until the next wind train!
Around 6am there was a small rain shower too, but it didn't last long.
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