Today's Miles 12.7. AT miles 354.2
Back to gorgeous sunny hiking weather in the woods today. We left the hostel about 8:30am. It was a steady climb uphill for most of the day, from 1740 to 4300 ft. There were a few nice level sections and bits of downhill thrown in too, but all pretty easy. We stopped for a snack break sitting on a log in the sun just before Indian Grave Gap.
From the gap it was up through what looked like fire damaged forest. Far more open and there was a lot of new growth of Azaleas and Rhodadendrons at ground level. We had glimpses across to Roan Mountain, a 6000 footer, where we will be in two days time, at least we think it was Roan Mountain. We hiked over Beauty Spot which was another fantastic grassy Bald clearing, again with great 360° views.
From Beauty Spot it was downhill to Deep Gap where we planned on camping for the night. We got a little confused where the actual camp spot was. We found Meeple sitting next to a tree by a camp fire ring but on searching for a water source, only to find none, we decided it wasn't the right place so continued a little further. Eventually we got there, the 'water' source was signposted with a blue blaze which is normal, so we'd got the right place. It was about 3pm when we arrived. Meeple decided to carry on to the next shelter after filling up with water, we were staying put though and had a lovely relaxing afternoon in the sunshine - it felt more like a holiday! Hopefully we'll see Meeple and Caribou again down the trail. (Caribou's an early bird and left the hostel about 7am).
Another thru hiker, Tumbleweed, passed by our camp spot. Nigel had a good chat with him, he's doing big 20/30 mile days. Once the sun went down the winds picked up and it got a bit chilly, so we tucked ourselves in our tent. It was windy all night with gusts of 30mph but not a chilly wind, we were too warm and delayering again in our sleeping bags.
Blue blazes mark side trails to water supplies, shelters, privy's etc. or other, non AT, trails. Double white blazes on the AT are a cautionary warning, usually meaning the trail is about to change direction or cross paths/junctions with another trail.
I saw a couple of new birds today but didn't manage to get photo's, a bright red Scarlet Tanager and a beautiful Blue Jay.
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