Day: 052
Date: Thursday, 15 June 2023
Start: Salt Log Gap (AT Mile 794.7)
Finish: Long Mountain Wayside (AT Mile 809.1) but staying in Lexington
Daily Kilometres: 22.7
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1363.4
Weather: Warm, humid and mostly sunny.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Cheeseburger & fries
Dinner: Chicken burrito bowl/Chicken tenders & fries, ice-cream.
Aches: Dave - still dealing with heel blister; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Hiking along the atmospheric Brown Mountain Creek where remnants of the freed slave farming community that lived there in the early 1900s could be seen amongst the woods.
Lowlight: None really
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
With the possibility of burgers for lunch, if we made good time, we woke at 5:00am and were hiking by 6:00am.
We started with a steady climb to the top of Bluff Mt (3351') that soon had Dave delayering to his T-shirt despite the early hour. There was a small poignant memorial at the summit to a 4-y-o boy who had been found dead there in 1891 after wandering away from his schoolhouse several days earlier. There were also amazing views to the west over rural countryside, mountains and fog-shrouded valleys.
For the rest of our hiking day we were predominantly descending through peaceful woodland and alongside rocky babbling streams.
We took our first and only break at the Redland River Bridge after 3.5 hours of walking to have breakfast. In total, we had a little over 14 miles to hike for the day to get to Long Mountain Wayside and US Hwy 60, from where we planned to get to Lexington and our motel booked for two nights.
After the breakfast break, when we had phone reception on top of a knoll, Dave messaged a hiker shuttle operator estimating we would need a ride at 1:00pm from Long Mountain Wayside but, unfortunately, we did not have reception again until we actually got there 2.5 hours later and were able to confirm the ride.
Before that, apart from the usual woodlands, there were some bridged river crossings and a lovely stretch following the contours alongside the Lynchburg Reservoir. Also the journey along Brown Mountain Creek was interesting and scenic.
Not long after we reached the highway an Asian thru-hiker we had last seen weeks ago in the Smoky Mountains emerged from the trail behind us. His English was limited, but he did manage to say "Long time no see!" with a big smile when he saw us. He quickly hitched a ride down the mountain making us somewhat regret having booked the shuttle, but it arrived soon after 1:30pm, as promised, and by soon after 2:15pm we were checking into our motel.
Dave went and bought some late lunch while Julie showered and then later, after the laundry was done, we had an early dinner at a restaurant next door before walking to the Walmart across the road where we bought most of the supplies needed for the next leg, so that we don't have too much to do tomorrow on our day off.
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