Day 71
Start: Mountain Lake Road
End: Laurel Creek Shelter
Miles Hiked: 10.9
Miles on AT: 675.4
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Back on trail! Janitor wasn’t feeling up to joining me for this section, so it’s solo hiking time for this leg. Today was a short day, so I took it pretty easy. The first stop was a mere 0.2 miles from where I started for the day.
Two section hikers I met yesterday recommended catching the view at Wind Rock, so that’s just what I did. What a view into the past! The sight before me could easily have been from 100 or 200 years ago. There was only one building in view, everything else was untouched forest, no towns or roads in sight. Seeing the vast expanse of trees made me feel proud and grateful that the U.S. (or at least part of the U.S.) still values wilderness and preserving nature. It’s so important to have untouched land where animals can thrive, plants can grow, and biodiversity can continue to exist.
Getting back on trail, things were pretty quiet. The terrain was much smoother than yesterday and the hiking was easy. I ran into a few critters on trail, including a box turtle that looked very content right where he was in the middle of the trail.
I descended until I reached a shelter and there at the picnic table were two familiar faces I hadn’t seen in a while. The brothers! We caught up and chatted about who we’d seen and where we’d stayed off trail. After a while, they moved on and, a bit later, I did, too.
As the morning progressed into the afternoon, the temperature started to rise. I started my climb of the day and immediately regretted not picking up more water at the previous shelter. I wouldn’t die of thirst, but a bit more water would have been nice.
On the climb, I crossed over an area of heavy blow downs that trail crews hadn’t yet gotten to clean up. It wasn’t the worst blowdown section I’d ever seen, but it was definitely the worst I’d seen on the AT. There must have been 10 trees I had to hop over or navigate around.
Eventually, I caught up with the brothers at a dirt road crossing and took a short break there. Just as I was getting ready to continue on, a guy pulled up in a truck and offered us water. Perfect! I had just run out of the water I had and still had a couple hundred feet to climb. I drank some and packed the rest out. Talk about magical timing.
The last section of the climb was steeep! I had to take several 10 second breaks, but eventually I made it to the top. It was a breath of fresh air to be up there; the trail was truly flat and smooth. I made my way to the Kelly Knob view point but was disappointed when all I could see was a piece of a mountain and trees. I still enjoyed an extended snack break and enjoyed my view of the sky.
My last mile or so to the shelter was easy; I just moved downhill through a thick rhododendron jungle. At the shelter, I met a new hiker, a younger guy who was taking time off of college to gain some real life experience and figure out what he really wants to do in life. The brothers arrived shortly after as well as a few section hikers. Dinner was great and conversation flowed well. Now that camp chores are done, it’s time for lights out!
And that’s day 71.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.