Day 81
Start: Punchbowl Shelter
End: US 60, Long Mountain Wayside
Miles Hiked: 11.3
Miles on AT: 809.3
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We had a rude awakening this morning. Some other hikers had their fire going at around 5:30 am, which was fine. But then they started burning their plastic trash and lots of it. The toxic smoke woke us up fully and pushed us to rush and pack up. Plus, a pair of loud birds squawked for about an hour at 3 am last night. Needless to say, it was a rough morning.
We scrambled and packed up in 30 minutes and hiked back to the trail to escape the smoke so we could actually enjoy our morning and eat breakfast. It was going to be another sleepy day for me!
As we started hiking, I caught a bit of the early morning sun in between the trees. When we reached the Blue Ridge Parkway, we got a beautiful view of the morning sky, the mountains a blueish haze in the distance. As we went further, we stumbled across another milestone marker: 800 miles!
All I could think about this morning was getting to town and eating. Luckily, most of the trail was flat. We walked along a reservoir for a while before reaching another creek. A sign informed us that this area used to be home to a settlement founded by freed black Americans. It was cool to see the remnants of chimneys and stone walls and imagine what the community could’ve looked like.
Something that I think about often when thru hiking is the fact that people who fled slavery had to hike and travel for hundreds of miles to reach freedom. To me, they’re the real thru hikers. They hiked with little, went through dangerous situations, and could only trust a few people on their journeys. They earned their freedom and risked their lives to do so. What I’m doing is far easier.
Back on trail, we were nearing the end of our day. Janitor had thought he might want to swim in the creek, but when we got there, the water levels were much lower than we expected, so we skipped it. We pushed the final 2 miles uphill to the road and were so happy when we hit the pavement.
Our first order of business was food, of course. We hit up Foothill Mama’s BBQ and Janitor loved it. No zero day for us tomorrow, so we’re going to relax for as long as we can and then get back on trail tomorrow.
And that’s day 81.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.