AT – Day 6
13 miles from Vandeventer Shelter to a camping spot 1 mile before Double Springs Shelter. Hiked by myself all day. I started later, by 7:30 and was still able to make the day’s mileage by 2 PM. The weather was warm, humid, with a 50% chance of rain. It hit 80 for sure.
All the talk is about the easy ridge walk into Damascus, but I’m puffin up these unremitting, one and two hundred foot uphills of which there’s always another.
There is dense poison ivy in these parts. I try to stay exactly in the center of the foot path to avoid brushing up against it.
It’s so different this time dealing with water sources. I don’t fret about water, never carry more than a quart, and have the knowledge that I can go 5 more miles after I run out of water. If it is coming out of the earth way up high, like a spring, I drink it, otherwise, for example, streams I zap with the Steripen.
Tonight I’m staying with just two other campers at this decent campsite. One woman has a bad knee and has or emerged from her tent for the past several hours, and there’s a young section hiker hammocking up.
I truly appreciate being able to walk here on the AT in Tennessee.
The bugs are swarming in , so I’m going to assist in the building of a decent sized smoky fire.
It did rain today.
