Nolichucky River to Cherry Gap Shelter
17.5 miles, 359.0 miles total
I got dropped off this morning at River Rd, where I left, by my "friend" Zack, who promptly wish a hailstorm to open up on me. More on that later.
Today, I hiked a route that Lutherock does with campers, but backwards (uphill) and longer (twice as long). Anyways, about 10 miles in, right around Beauty Spot near 3PM, it started to pour, and then guess what happened... it started to hail. Thanks, Zack.
So it was miserable and raining for the next 2.5 hours, but I just kept hiking to the next shelter so I wouldn't have to set up my tent in the rain. There was also quite a bit of thunder and lightning. That was actually kind of scary and nerve-wracking. Most of the afternoon I was hiking up what was pretty much a creek at that point. Luckily the last hour that I was hiking, it stopped raining. Nothing really dried, but it wasn't as miserable, just muddy and slippery.
Fortunately, there was room for me in the shelter, so I hung up some stuff to dry and set up my bed. I ate dinner, hung my food bag, filtered some water and went to bed. Tonight, in the shelter with me are Beetnick, Bushy Bear, Mess, and Ninja.
Absolutely poured on us one time when we were taking campers on the beauty spot section. Thankfully it stopped right as we started setting up camp. Nothing worse than pitching tents in the rain!
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