Today was the big day! Mile 99.9! The morning started out pretty strong, motivated by a reluctance to dig a cat hole and a strong desire to get to the next toilet.
We arrived at the first shelter relatively early in the day and were pleasantly surprised to see all of our friends there. Based on our FarOut logs, we thought they were too far ahead for us to catch them. Our long day yesterday paid off!
It was a brief meeting, because you know, duty calls. But after losing some of our base weight, we started chatting with our lost friends at The Carter Gap Shelter. It was fun to catch up and hear all of everyone’s combined stories.
Turns out that creepy empty bear spray in yesterday’s post was just a hiker accidentally dumping it in his tent. We found out that he ended up sleeping in the shelter that night. Oops.
We met a new hiker named Chipper, who was a jovial and happy guy (hence the name of the trail). He ended up walking with us for a good part of the day and it was nice to meet him.
Our other friend, “Cowboy,” finally chose his trail name and joined the hiking train. It made the day go by pretty quickly as we chatted.
However, we all quickly quieted down when we reached Albert Mountain. The climb was incredibly steep, but the summit had the cool marker of 99.9 miles on FarOut. Needless to say, we were motivated.
It feels incredible to have achieved this milestone. As for the team, I think we are doing very well. The only thing we messed up was the shoes at the beginning. That’s how it is.
Some small mountain legs are starting to form below us. At least the climbs aren’t so scary anymore. (Though the downhills still suck.)
Even with the tough climb today we managed 15 miles. And when we arrived at the shelter, even more of our friends were waiting for us.
We had a great tram dinner around the shelter picnic table. The social life here is really immaculate. It almost feels like starting college again, where you make good friends left and right.
Everyone is excited to see people they haven’t seen in a few days and almost everyone is welcome at the table. It’s a very warm and fuzzy feeling. Now if we could just get our feet to stop hurting.
Tomorrow we will arrive in Franklin, North Carolina. We are very excited for a shower and a bed. However, the hostel was full, so it looks like we may be washing clothes in our hotel bathtub. I’m really excited to see how that goes.
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