It was a great day for hiking today! Woke up this morning at around 7:30 and got moving! We had a pretty big goal of getting 25 miles to Four Pines Hostel over some pretty rugged terrain. Today we managed to reach our goal. Because it was a hostel we were staying at we were able to hike a little later because we didn't have to set up in the dark.
Before we get to the hostel part of the day let's dive into some of today's awesomeness. Throughout the whole day we did a lot of ridge running! This is one of my favorite parts of hiking the trail so far. Literally we hiked for a solid 10-15 miles today on top of the ridge of some mountain ranges. This was accompanied with some amazing views and tricky sections of rock walks. The rocks on top of the ridges we slippery due to the amount of rainfall and moisture it has been exposed to the past few days. I almost busted it a few times but managed to save myself.
We also came across a ton of animals today. We seen 2 snakes, many lizards, and a couple of frogs. The snakes we seen was a green snake and a timber rattler. The timber rattler was a pretty cool experience. After we found out what it was we decided to try to get a good picture of it. So I extended my trekking pole and max tried to pick it up with it. The snake was just a little to big and heavy to be picked up. I thought it was quite interesting that this snake didn't rattle or act aggressive at all during the whole ordeal.
We also had the chance to get some trail magic today. After a brutal climb around lunch we saw two guys standing by a bench at the top of a hill with a huge cooler. As we got closer they called us over and offered us ice cream, drinks, and fruit. This was so great, just having something cold to drink after the hard climb made the day way better. Plus it's hard to turn down chocolate milk. Ice cream is on a different level of greatness, at least for me. One of the guys actually is doing a thru hike this year as well and had just gotten of trail to see a buddy and get out of the rainy weather. While he was off trail he wanted to do a little trail magic. This is something I plan to do whenever I'm done. After we departed from the trail angels we made it to a memorial. The memorial was of Audie Murphy who was the most decorated WWII soldier. He passed away in a plan crash close to the trail so they made him this memorial.
The later part of the day consisted of some pretty cool sections of hiking. We went over a river where we swam for a few minutes. It was the first time swimming on the trail and it was great to cool off after hiking in the sun and mid 70's all day. The. We climbed to an iconic stone monolith called Dragons Tooth. It was a great view from the top although it was quite scary to climb on stone covered in sand with only about 2 feet of rock to stand on. It was the main highlight of the day. Coming down off of dragons tooth towards Four Pines Hostel was really rocky and steep, which would have been great and fun if I didn't have a heavy pack on and it was at the start of the day. But at the time we hiked it, we were worn out and it was scary trying not to fall and hurt ourselves with such a steep decent. I will definitely come back to it though and do the section fresh.
Once we arrived at the hostel we met some people and hung out with some we had already met. Jedi and Dad were two we had known from before. Also we got a shuttle into town this evening as well where we were able to get some subway to eat, this was a blessing because all I had left for dinner tonight was just ramen and butter herb noodles which isn't to great. The best part about this hostel is that it is 100% donation based so they aren't here to rip you off, but rather just genuinely here for the hikers.
Today was one of the best days in a while and I know tomorrow will be the same as we are going to see McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. They are another two iconic spots of the trail. I hope everyone at home is doing great, I miss everyone! Thanks for the prayers, support, and encouragement!!
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Location:Four Pines Hostel
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