Wednesday, April 10

Hike was 15 miles to jerrys cabin. The hike today was hard and steep at times, lovely at others...typical.. Left camp at 737am.
Took several breaks today sure to the steepness of the trail. One at Allens gap to dispose of my trash, lunch near little laurel shelter (we're still avoiding the actual shelter because of the virus that's making everyone so sick) ..there was actually a note on the ground in front of the shelter that said "don't stay here, vomit and feces everywhere!"..point taken.. .
I made it 11 miles until Kim the forest ranger stopped me because the trail was closed. The forest service was doing a controlled burn so we were forced to stop before reaching our intended destination.
I sat for 2 hours contemplating the options: camp here and continue onward when allowed, hopefully tomorrow morning...but this is fire we're talking about..not totally predictable... There was also an option to be shuttled ahead around the fire zone, but we would have had to walk uphill 5 miles and who wants THAT? No water here, but Kim the ranger said some will be brought in for us if we stay. When the water arrived, it was 0.5 liter bottles...a new skill I've acquired is knowing exactly how much water I need for 24 hours: 4.5 liters...
A large group (peepaw & his group, clever girl & her group) walked about a mile down the forest service road to some"beautiful meadow on a hill" anticipating sunset and sunrise and stars.. zag, goat and i stayed put and tented as close as possible to the trail with m80, trooper and willow. We had the loud chorus of frogs all night long...
None of us woke up with projectile vomiting....the same cannot be said for all the "sharers" on the hill... Young, innocent folks sharing everything..including viruses..
WE were camped near black stack cliffs
(mile 297) we celebrated 300 miles anyway..we decided to count the approach trail at amicalola state park...
Dinner: oatmeal appetizer,
Chicken chili Mac entree
Ginger tea
Scotch
Plan tomorrow is 15 miles to big flats campsite. Pics : lunch with m80 family; sunset through the trees;
m80, willow, trooper in their tent, sipping celebratory scotch