11-26-12

Days since my thruhike began: 222
AT miles hiked today: 9.4
Total AT miles hiked: 1999.5
Miles to complete my thruhike:184.7

I slept in again today, then worked on my blisters, then called Hikermom/Karen, a trail angel near Daleville, who I found on White Blaze during the hurricane. She is going to help us out in Daleville and slackpack us, too. It felt so warm down in the hollow where the shelter is. I think it has good Feng Shui, with the shape of the hollow and the water running nearby. We heard coyotes last night, and they sounded close. Animals must like this area, too.

The trail was pretty again today. There were some big climbs, and combined with our late start and my sore knee we shorted our miles today and have to make them up with a 17 mile day tomorrow. In the rain, possibly.

We are at Marble Spring campsite. We chose to tent here instead of night hiking over a steep mountain with storm clouds blowing in. We got our tents set up and then the rain came. It went away though, for now, so we didn't have to eat in the rain.

I threw the line to hang our food bags in the dark. It wasn't my first time doing that, but for the first time, it got stuck. I did everything I could to get that rock bag dislodged from the branch, but nothing worked. I finally gave up and cut my rope as high as I could reach. I think I lost 15-20 feet of my 50 foot rope. Good thing Eagle Eye has her own 500 foot rope. I got her rope hung, finally, after many, many attempts. How frustrating. Usually I am very good at this. I guess I am out of practice, plus there aren't any good branches around here. If a bear wants to knock over this little tree to get our food, it probably can.

I'm in my tent writing and looking at Facebook, because I actually have phone service here, and will be able to charge my phone batteries at Karen's house. Deer are crashing through the leaves all around our tents, and they are very loud. They shouldn't hang around our food bags and make us think they are bears. That's just rude.