Today's miles 14. AT miles 93joy
Today was our least favourite day on the trail so far. It was cooler and cloudy when we woke up this morning, it was quite cold during the night too, colder than it has been in a while. We left the campsite at 9:00, the trail was right next to where we camped. We got a good 3mph pace going this morning again. The paths were a little rockier today in places, for a while the trail was a nice ledge cut out from the rocky terrain which contoured around the mountains. We passed Stony Man Mountain, the highest point on the AT in Shenandoah National Park. It was a 0.2 mile detour to get to the summit which we didn't bother to take.
After a couple of hours walking though the blisters on my heels worsened and started hurting, causing me to slow down. I was compensating by walking on the balls of my feet instead. We stopped for a rest and snack break by some rocks on the descent from Stony Man mountain. Not long after we got walking again it started raining, very light to start but soon the heavens opened. We had intended on walking 18.4 miles today but because my feet were sore and it was raining heavy we stopped at an earlier hut, Byrd's Nest #3 Hut at 3pm. We were the only ones there initially but then it soon filled, up as shelters do, when it rains. We decided to sleep in the shelter rather than our tent because the forecast was for rain all night and the next two days too. Oh joy.
The rain did ease slightly in the evening but it remained cold and very misty. Very wet mist which just gets everything damp, we could see the mist blowing around inside the shelter. The rain returned though and it continued raining heavily all night long.
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