| Mile | 484.1 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 13.1 |
| Day | 46 |
Chilled in Damascus for a while as we had planned on taking a “near zero” day. Ate at a wing place that wasn’t very good, I swapped my pad for a much lighter one and mailed back some winter gear.
Started the day at around 2ish which ended up being peak heat and my pack was full as all hell so the pad swap was not very noticeable. Struggled for quite a bit in the beginning but the folks in our group were very kind with the pacing.
There is a detour we have to take as the AT is supposed to join the Virginia creeper trail but it is under a lot of construction post Helene. The detour is actually part of the “original” AT which is kind of cool. Supposedly you can skip the detour and still get your completion certificate but the certificate is dumb.
We originally were going to stop 8 miles in at a campsite but still had some daylight so we pushed 5 more to a shelter. By the time we got there it was raining and dark and there were like 10+ people camping already.
Managed to get setup in the dark and rain but accidentally poured all the dirt from my stake bag onto my new pad. Sucks.
New shoes feel solid so far. No idea what miles we are doing tomorrow but I think we get to the ponies.