A Fond Farewell

We all were treated to another round of Keith's delish orange juice pancakes this morning, and then had to (sadly) pack up and head back to the trail. Sean was going to continue his visit with Elise and Daniel, back in North Carolina, and they were planning on taking him to the beach tomorrow.

By the time we all packed everything, including our rather large packs into the trunk of Elise's car, it became apparent that the box of clothes and sleeping bags that we had shipped to the cabin would not fit anywhere except someone lap. Luckily, Sean was able to hold this enormous box on his lap until we hit a town and shipped it on to Keith's parents for later use. We made a quick stop for Chick-Fil-A, and then headed back to the trail.

We hated to see them go, but knew we needed to keep heading north if we were going to reach Mt. Katahdin before winter hits. The first thing we noticed though, is it had gotten hot and humid! They drove off, and we waved til they were out of sight. Since we were leaving the James River, we immediately began this big climb out of the valley.

I had been hoarse, and fighting off a sore throat and cough for several days, so felt very sluggish and my legs and hips felt sore. I really had not felt this way before, and attributed it to not feeling very well. We did get treated to really nice views of the valley as we climbed, but I was sure ready to camp by the time we reached Salt Log Gap at mile 786.7. I was in bed by 7:45. The campsite was really pretty. Even though we were in the forest we were surrounded by some plants there were waist high. They were thick! It was almost like it was a crop of something and we were in the middle of it.






- Steady and F100