chestnut knob shelter to brushy mountain outpost

slept really well last night. the only thing that woke me up was my sleeping pad deflating and maestro’s noisy pad when he rolled over. quick PSA: the thermarest pads are awesome, but sound like you’re sleeping on a bag of chips. get the nemo tensor pad, it’s a little thicker, and much much quieter.

i went outside the shelter at least once during the night to check out the stars and the view, both pretty amazing. the wind picked up but only a little, and inside the shelter it was very cozy.

i woke before dawn and lay watching the sunrise through the open door, finally rousing myself to take -some photos.- a photo.

the shelter had some interesting graffiti that took me a moment to figure out. i think what happened was someone wrote ‘trump won’ on the wall, and then someone else fixed it.

you don’t come back from trumpet won-ton.

i was on trail not long before 8. i pretty quickly tried to call magz as my service was good. we had a nice pre-work chat while aje puttered on her garden.

the trail today was a bit of the same, hot leafless, woods. i was on a ridgeline all morning though, so it wasn’t too steep.and there was jist enough of a cross breeze to keep the sweat evaporating.

i hiked alone till about 10 when i stopped at a road crossing for a snack. mixed up and maestro caught up to me though we didn’t say much.

i continued hiking and the trail decended from the ridgeline, getting hotter and hotter. i stopped at jenkins shelter for lunch. a few hikers were already there, and presently the entire group filtered in. lyric and bugs were so hot they went and bathed in the tiny stream that was the water source. i took a somewhat long lunch in the shade cooling down.

i headed out and hiked about an hour to a larger stream with a bridge. i sat for a while with my feet in. the rest of the crew arrived the stream had a couple deep pools and bugs, lyric, and rocket went for a swim. for a minute i wasn’t going to, but then changed my mind and was very happy i did.

the rest of the afternoon was a 7 mile water carry. the next 9 miles had no water and our plan was to camp at some power lines 7 miles in. this meant we had to carry all our water for the afternoon, dinner, and breakfast. for me this meant about 4 litres. rocket called brushy mountain outpost, which was .3 miles past our planned camp spot to see if he could put some water out for us, but he declined. he did however say we could camp behind his shop. so we all cameled up and headed out.

the trail was hot, but not particularly steep, and before long we were heading down the other side. we got to the outpost and immediately hitched into town and found a gas station / restaurant where we gorged ourselves on chicken tenders, fries, and gas station food. on our way out a guy offered to take us back up the mountain.

we set up tents and the group spent the night playing cards and me journaling while enjoying a gigantic yuengling.

it’s supposed to rain a little tonight and more tomorrow, but we do get to have a late start because the outpost (where we’re resupplying) doesn’t open until 8.

one additional image from today: