I awoke in my tent by a creek. I slept pretty well. I cooked and ate breakfast, caught up on some work, and packed my stuff up. By the time I was done everyone except for Mulligan and I had left (again). I told Mulligan I was getting started and I’d see him up the trail.

There was a steep climb out of our tent site.  Then it was a steady decline for quite a few miles. The trail leveled out by a river. I was flying. It was nice to have several miles of downhill and flat ground to hike on for a change.

I stopped at a shelter for lunch. I ran into an older gentlemen by the name of Tim I met a few days prior. I asked him if he was thru hiking. He said he was. We were a quarter way into this trek and he didn’t have a trail name yet. I asked him why. He said nothing has really stuck yet. He was a bus driver. I blurted out a possible name “old yeller”. He laughed. We agreed that wasn’t a good name. I asked him what he was into. He said cycling. I asked him what his favorite bike brand was. He said “Surly.” I said that’s a cool name. Why not Surly…surely that would be a good name for you!? He smiled. He said but it’s supposed to be a hiking trail name, not biking. I told him about Spinner I hiked several days with back in the Smokies. Her name derived from her passion for cycling. He smiled again and said he’d think about it.

I finished my lunch and we parted ways. I traveled down a dirt road for a bit before climbing up, up, up alongside a creek cascading down the mountainside. A hawk screeched as it flew over my head. I came to a grassy bald with views of the mountains in the distance. There standing in the middle of the bald was a 4 sided stone shelter with a door. It’s name… Chestnut Knob Shelter. It’s one of three stone 4 sided shelters I’d seen on the AT. The 1st was on top of Blood Mountain in GA. The 2nd was on top of Roan Mountain in Roan, TN. The 3rd was this one.

I entered the shelter and sat down at the picnic table in the center of the shelter. It was nice… for a shelter. Someone drew light switches and power outlets on the wall. Kind of funny:) No, the shelter didn’t have any power. But it has 4 walls and a door to protect you from the weather.

Mulligan arrived. Soon after Tim showed up too. I greeted him “hello Surly, good to see you again.” He smiled. I introduced Mulligan to Surly too. A few minutes later FirePlug showed up. I hadn’t seen him in several days. We all hung out for a bit, had a snack, discussed our plans for the next few days. There’s a deli with burgers in 30 miles. We talked about getting there in the next two days. Possibly 20 miles today and 10 tomorrow. I was thinking 15 both days but we’ll see. Mulligan and I headed out. As we were leaving I ran into Pretzel, whom I hiked with her and her crew, coming out of Damascus, VA. We caught up for a min while Mulligan went ahead. She invited me to a party Honey Bun was throwing in Pearisburg, VA in a few days. We exchanged contact info so I could get more details, and parted ways.

After 15 miles I arrived at where I thought the campsite was going to be. It was actually half a mile down a steep hill. And after reading GutHook, there was only room for 1-2 tents and the water source was iffy too. It was getting late and my feet were in pain. I was pretty certain they weren’t down there but I wasn’t about to climb down there and back up if not. So I pressed on.

It was another 5 miles until the next official campsite. I figure that’s where everyone would be. Especially since there was talk of possibly doing 20 miles today. It was mostly downhill which was good from a strenuous standpoint, but my toes jam into the front of my boots on downhills. I was really low on water too. But I pushed onward.

The first water source I came to wasn’t good. I could hear it but couldn’t really see it. It was flowing under an avalanche of big boulders. I couldn’t get to it. I could see on my app there was another water source on up ahead. I hoped it was better. I made my way to it and it was flowing well and accessible. I drank a liter quickly. I wanted more but it was really getting dark now so I needed to move on.

I arrived at the shelter at dark. There were quite a few people already there. Some of which were already sleeping too. Mulligan found a tent site for me before I got there which he showed to me as I arrived. Which was nice. One last thing I didn’t have to worry about trying to sort out in the dark after a long day of hiking.

I setup camp and was so exhausted I didn’t even feel like cooking and eating.  But I knew I needed to. So I made a quick dinner and ate it and crashed in my sleeping bag. What a long day…

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