Day 34

Origin: Campsite south of Indian Grave Gap
Destination: Campsite at the Orchard, just north of Iron Mountain Gap
Today's miles: 14.6
Total miles: 364.4

The forecast of 0% chance of precipitation for last night was either very localized for Erwin or just plain wrong, as we were woken up at 2am last night by howling wind and rains. We stayed dry, but we had a hard time getting going this morning as I didn't fall back asleep until around 6am. We had hoped to do nearly 19 miles today, but with the late start we adjusted the plan: if we made 15 miles by 5:30pm, we would push on to 19.

The rain stopped this morning but strong winds and fog plagued us into the early afternoon. Most of the terrain wasn't too difficult, but we weren't able to enjoy any views. The climb up Unaka Mountain was nice, as the peak was covered in a spruce forest, which was very different from the vegetation below. On our way down, a hiker passed us and told us he thought there was trail magic at the next gap. Magge and I have managed to not hit any hiker feeds since April 1, so we were cautiously excited. It turns out our skepticism was right, as the trail angels had either already left or had never been there at all.

We hit our 15 miles before 5:30pm, but Magge's pace had slowed down enough over the last hour that I didn't think we could make 19 miles by a reasonable hour, so we put our tent up in a bucolic orchard area (it's called the Orchard, but I'm not sure what kind of trees are here). I thought we'd have it to ourselves but someone else eventually showed up so we have to share it.