May 29: today went from absolutely beautiful to horribly ugly and back to nice. This was the day we were hiking into Daleville. We left Campbell Shelter and shortly thereafter came to Tinker Cliffs. Tinker Cliffs has its name in the history books as an area where deserters from the civil war hid out. Well, they certainly had a nice view!
We lunched at Lamberts Meadow Shelter, crossed a meadow and headed toward Daleville. The interesting ( frustrating) thing about the trail is that in order to go down, you go up. And in order to go to town, you veer away from town and then loop back in. Sometimes the reason for this seemingly pointless meandering is perfectly clear: like to maintain the trail, why not take advantage of some already maintained trails? Like along the power lines? This afternoon was like a 6 mile tour of the powelines that supply Daleville. Not very picturesque!
But we did finally make it into Daleville, got a hotel room, showered, and filled our bellies with barbecue.
But we did finally make it into Daleville, got a hotel room, showered, and filled our bellies with barbecue.
May 30: zero day! Unfortunately, the hotel pool was closed. The good news is that Daleville had a full service outfitter and I tried on every short torso small waist belt 50 liter pack in the store! Now I have a better fitting pack that has adjustability to go to extra small waistband! I just might need it!
May31: It was hard to get started hiking today! We hit the breakfast buffet and hit the trail at 8:30 with Flavor Saver. The morning was was nice, shady with gradual inclines. The trees really do keep the temperature down! Passed by lots of wild strawberries, in about 2 weeks they'll be ready to eat. Lunched at Fullhardt Knob Shelter with Stinkbug and Honeybun and Flav. We took our time, stopping at babbling brooks for water and rest periods. Had a long lunch with Flav, Stinkbug, Dorothy, Jackalope, and Blood Orange. All met back up for dinner at the shelter- it was like family dinner. Really nice group in this hiker bubble. Good day.
June 1: Another awesome day! This was the swimming hole day! Up and out by 8. We were all pretty much keeping pace with one another, stopping for snack time together and talking about THE SWIMMING HOLE! And then we were there. It was great! A nice 3 hour break with rocks to sun on, pools to lounge in, and 15 or so people in their underwear having a blast. Dorothy pulled out her ukulele and we all sang summery songs. Carbon, Nimble, and Mellow Johnny hitched to the store for beer and the driver came back and handed out fudgicles to everyone. Plus, trail magic sodas!
Some light rain moved in, and after hanging out under the bridge for a while, we pressed on to Cornius Creek Shelter. Life is good!
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